Bill Beem received the 2019 L. Frank Baum Memorial Award from the International Wizard of Oz Club in recognition of his many years of faithful service to our organization.
Throughout his four decades of membership Bill has served as a member-at-large and recording secretary on the Oz Club’s Board of Directors.
Together with his wife Anita, Bill chaired the 2006 Ozmopolitan Convention in Naperville, Illinois. He has prepared exhibitions for many Oz snd public displays, drawing from a vast and ever-expanding personal collection of Oz books, esoteric collectibles and ephemera—much of which were present with his impressive displays in 2000 at the Club’s Centennial Convention in Bloomington, Indiana.
When Fred Meyer passed away, Bill volunteered to help retrieve the volume of Oz Club publications that Fred had accumulated and stored in his apartments in Escanaba, Michigan.
In more recent years, Bill has continued to support the Club on many fronts, attending conventions, helping with programming, and serving as a representative of the Club to promote membership at Oz festivals held around the country. Today he serves as the Club’s assistant membership secretary, volunteering hours of support handling correspondence, doing data entry of individual members, and providing membership reports to the Club’s board of directors.
Bill’s contributions may be overlooked by some because of his quiet and unassuming nature, but generosity, diligence, and thoughtful support have made him a vital part of a functioning Oz Club for many years. Congratulations, Bill! Well done!