Obituary: Frank J. Beelman Jr.

Frank J. Beelman Jr., CEO of Beelman Truck Company, East St. Louis, Ill., a 770-truck dry bulk transporter that has maintained a presence on the Mississippi River at St. Louis for many years, died August 4. He was 100 years old. His son, Frank “Sam” Beelman III, president of the company and a noted tunnel hull boat racer in his youth—he set a New Orleans-to-St. Louis record—said his father came to work on a regular basis in his elderliness and had bought a Harley in January that he put 5,000 miles on. He was a decorated World War II veteran. 

In addition to operating the St. Louis Municipal River Terminal at one time, Beelman has river terminals in Venice and Hartford, Ill., and on the South Chicago River. The company recently purchased the Missouri Portland cement dock at St. Louis to further complement its trucking business.