UCLA Professor Ralph L. Beals Dies

Ralph L. Beals, professor emeritus of anthropology at UCLA and founder of the university’s departments of anthropology and sociology, died last week at his Los Angeles home after a long illness, a campus spokesman said Monday. He was 84.

Beals, who was hired by UCLA as an instructor in 1936 and taught there for 33 years before his retirement, was a past president of the American Anthropological Assn. and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Grant.

Beals, who received his doctorate from UC Berkeley, worked in the field of community development in Egypt as a UNESCO consultant and wrote, among other things, a study of Mexican students at U.S. universities.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Manchester Beals, and three children.