Appalachian State, 1978
• 1975 Second Team Academic All-America®
• 1977 First Team Academic All-America®
Brig. Gen. Gill Beck was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2004.
Gill Beck was a stand-out center on Appalachian State football team. He was a three-time All-Southern Conference first-team selection, team captain as a senior and was named Appalachian State’s Senior Athlete of the year. He graduated in 1978 second in his class with a 3.98 grade-point average. Beck was awarded a NCAA Post-Graduate and Department of Defense scholarships and he attended Duke University School of Law where he earned a Juris Doctorate in 1985.
His success on and off the field isn’t something he accomplished without the guidance of mentors. “I think I am very privileged to have grown up in Lenoir and Caldwell County,” Beck said. “The people I met, the teachers, the coaches, made a tremendous impression on me. They led me to believe that I could set my sights high. I was inspired by my teachers and coaches to do as much as I could.”
Beck has spent over 25 years serving in the U.S. Army Reserves. While serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Beck represented the U.S. in litigation. Beck earned the highest Department of Justice Award, the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service award, for participation in a 1997 initiative, LABSCAM, which recovered over $186 million from laboratories defrauding the United States.
In 2006, as a result of his efforts to help build a judicial system in Iraq, Beck was awarded the Bronze Star Medal by Major General William H. Brandenburg. The medal is awarded to any person who “distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.”
Working closely with the trials and detainees in Iraq, Beck saw exceptional courage from judges and attorneys in Iraq on a daily basis. “The terrorists … target judges and lawyers," Beck said. "Despite being in the “cross-hairs of the terrorists” the Iraqi judges and lawyers continued to re-establish the rule of law in Iraq. Their courage and commitment to the rule of law was inspiring and demonstrated to me the integral role of attorneys, judges, and the law to a society’s proper functioning.”
On October 10th, 2008, President George W. Bush nominated Beck for promotion to brigadier general. As brigadier general, Beck served as the chief judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. The head of the Judge Advocate General department, Major General Scott Black, supported Bush’s nomination saying, “Col. Beck is already an outstanding senior leader in our Army, and his broad range of experiences and superior accomplishments have molded him into a consummate professional exceptionally well suited for his new responsibilities.”