Raymond John Becraft
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 16 Mar 1890 - Ogden, Weber Co, UT
Christening:
Death: 6 Sep 1938 - Portland, Multnomah Co, OR 1
Burial:
Cause of Death:
AFN :
Events
• Biography
Raymond J. Becraft (1890-1938) was born in Ogden, Utah. He graduated from the Utah State Agricultural college in 1917 and became the first professor of range management at Utah State. He served in this position until 1935 when he became a professor of forestry at the University of Idaho. One year later he was named the regional head of the Division of Plant Ecology for the Forest Service in Portland, Oregon. In 1938, after suffering head trauma, Becraft became insane and killed his wife, son and himself.• Honors, Scholarship
http://library.usu.edu/Specol/photoarchive/p0021.html
Ray Becraft Scholarship• Census, Federal, 1900 in Ogden City, Weber Co, UT
Description: Established in memory of Raymond J. Becraft, who was a student and later a professor in the Department of Range Science at USU. He contributed significantly to our understanding of nutritional value of range forage. This scholarship has been established to preserve for history Ray's contribution to natural resource management.
Amount:
$450 total/ $225 per semester for one academic year.
Criteria:
Awarded to a freshman on the basis of scholarship, need, leadership, and
interest in natural resources.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:KUCbwmV4-MAJ:www.cnr.usu.edu/student/pdf/Guide%252004-05.pdf+%22Raymond+J+Becraft%22&hl=en
Ward 4• Census, Federal, 1920 in Cache Co, UT
William Becraft, head, b July 1847, age 52, married 24 years, born England, emigrated 1870, check clerk RR; wife Nellie A, Mar 1850, age 50y, (4 children, 4 living), emigrated 1869; dau Susie, b Dec 1876, age 23y, born NY; dau Nellie Ritchie, b July 1878, age 21y, married 1 year, born NY; son Frank W, b Mar 1888, age 12y, born UT, at school; son Raymond, Mar 1890, age 10y, born UT, at school.
Beacraft, Ireta• Education, 192696 18B 31 B261
Beacraft, Raymond J.95 18B 31 B261
Graduate Student Fellows in the Department of Botany, University of Chicago, 1897-1935• Census, Federal, 1930 in Logan, Cache Co, UT
Becraft, Raymond John 1926-27
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/icuhtml/aepguide.html
Raymond J Becraft, age 49, born 1889, UT; Ireta, age 33, born 1896, wife; Raymond H, age 9, born 1920, son; Meriam, age 8, born 1921, daughter; Hellen, age 1, born 1928, daughter.• Residence, 1933 Northeast Forty-eighth Avenue, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, 1938
• Event, Ogden Standard-Examiner, 7 Sep 1938
BECRAFT TRIO
RITES, BURIAL
SET IN OREGON
Accident Blamed As
Mate Kills Wife,
Son, Self
The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Becraft and their 17-year old son, Raymond Jr., dead as a result of what authorities believed to be an insane outburst by Mr. Becraft Tuesday, will be buried at Portland, Ore., following services Friday, said friends today.
Becraft, a U..S. forest service employe, former professor of range management at Utah State Agricultural college, and the University of Idaho, killed his wife and son and then committed suicide Tuesday morning at Portland where he and his family had lived the past year, the Associated Press reported.
Suffered Accident
Becraft reportedly suffered head and spine injuries last week in a fall while making a forest inspection near Yakima, Wash., and it was believed these may have caused the burst of insanity. Becraft, 45, was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Becraft. He had no close relatives m Ogden.
Reed W. Bailey, director of the intermountain forest and range experiment station, an associate of Becraft when both were on the staff of Utah State Agriculurtal college, left here by auto Tuesday night for Portland to assist in funeral arrangements.
The Associated. Press quoted Portland authorities as saying the family appeared happy and no reason could be given for Becraft sudden outburst other than an apparent derangement. Police said Becraft and his son were in an upstairs bedroom when the shooting began. After-firing two shots at his son, Becraft apparently turned on his wife. A neighbor Mrs. O.V. Breese, heard Mrs. Becraft scream: "I'm shot."
Mrs. Breese ran to the front of the Becraft home and saw Becraft. rush out, her husband in pursuit. ;The neighbor said Becraft fired a shot at his wife and she fell with a chest wound.
Police said Becraft, apparently ran back upstairs, where his son was lying, and committed suicide with a bullet in the head. Two daughters, Marian, 16, and Helen 10, had left for school, and a. third Nancy, 4, fled to Mrs. Breeses home as the shooting started.
Becraft served with the forest service for two years after his graduation from Utah State Agricultural college in, 1917, and then returned as instructor at the college, a position he held until 1935 except for two years of graduate study at the University of Chicago Becraft, a native ot Ogden, was graduated from Weber academy and the U.S.A.C. where he was student body president in 1916-17 He had served an L.D.S. church mission in Germany.
He left the U.S.A.C. in 1935, to become professor of range management
at the University of Idaho A year ago he was named regonal head of the division of plant ecology for the forest service at Portland.
Besides his three daughters, Mr. Becraft is survived by a brother, Frank W. Becraft of Denver, and a sister, Mrs. Nell B. Ritchie of Santa Monica, Cal.
Mrs Becraft was a daughter of Denison E. and Eunice Stewart Harris, born Feb. 23, 1897 in Mexico Surviving are her mother and several brothers and sisters, including Dr. F. S. Harris, president of Brigham Young university;
Dr. M. H. Harris, secretary of the Utah Taxpayers association.
Parents
Father: William Becraft 2
Mother: Mary Ellen or Nellie Quibell 2
Spouses and Children
1. *Ireta Harris
Marriage: 24 Dec 1919 - Logan, Cache Co, UT
Status:
Children:
1. Raymond Harris Becraft
2. Marian Becraft
3. Helen Becraft
4. Nancy Fay Becraft
Sources
1. State of Oregon, "Oregon Death Index, 1903-98" (ancestry.com database), 6 Sep 1938, Portland Co, OR, certificates 2787 or 2788.
2. LDS.