{{Short description|American businessman (1914–2009)}} {{Infobox person | name = Henry Becton | other_names = Hank Becton | birth_name = Henry Prentiss Becton | birth_date = September 15, 1914 | birth_place = Rutherford, New Jersey, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|10|25|1914|10|15}} | death_place = Blue Hill, Maine, US | alma_mater = Yale University | employer = Becton, Dickinson and Company | father = Maxwell Becton }} '''Henry "Hank" Prentiss Becton''' (September 15, 1914 – October 25, 2009) was an American business executive and philanthropist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Becton, Henry Prentiss |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E1DC163AF930A35752C1A96F9C8B63 |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=The New York Times |language=en}}</ref> He was the chairman of Becton Dickinson and Company.
The Henry P. Becton School of Nursing & Allied Health at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Becton Center for Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University were named in his honor.
== Early life == Becton was born in Rutherford, New Jersey on September 15, 1914.<ref name=":0" /> His parents were Valerie and Maxwell Becton, an industrialist.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=1944-09-20 |title=Becton With Intelligence in British Air Base |pages=4 |work=The Record |location=Hackensack, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-becton-with-intelligence-in-b/136891685/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
He attended Rutherford High School before switching to the Taft School in Connecticut.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite news |date=1936-10-19 |title=Rutherford Senior Writes Lyric for Yale's New Football Anthem |pages=13 |work=The Herald-News |location=Passaic, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-rutherford-senior-writes/136890863/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He then attended Yale University, graduating in 1937.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Geradi |first=Maya Geradi |date=2020-02-24 |title=Becton Center celebrates 50 years |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/02/23/becton-center-celebrates-50-years/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Yale Daily News |language=en}}</ref> While at Yale, he was a member St. Anthony Hall, the Aurelian Society, and Tau Beta Phi.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Bharadwaj |first=Surbhi |date=2019-03-01 |title=Center for Edginess, Intellect and Dorks |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/03/01/center-for-edginess-intellect-and-dorks/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Yale Daily News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1934-12-20 |title=Rutherford |pages=14 |work=The Record |location=Hackensack, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-rutherford/136890659/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite news |date=1942-06-26 |title=Miss Jean Coggan Wed at Englewood to Henry P. Becton |pages=10 |work=The Record |location=Hackensack, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-miss-jean-coggan-wed-at-engle/136891309/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He belonged to the Yale Glee Club and toured Europe with the group.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1935-12-06 |title=Yale Glee Club's Concert Tonight |pages=3 |work=The Waterbury Democrat |location=Waterbury, Connecticut |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-waterbury-democrat-yale-glee-clubs/136891053/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> He was also a member of The Whiffenpoofs, a singing quartet.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1936-12-22 |title=Whiffenpoofs' Limber Up |pages=4 |work=Star Tribune |location=Minneapolis, Minnesota |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune-whiffenpoofs-limber-up/136891147/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He wrote the lyrics for Yale's new football anthem in 1936.<ref name=":7" /> He also wrote several songs that were included in the ''Yale Songbook''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2009-10-28 |title=Henry Prentiss Becton |url=http://www.bangordailynews.com/2009/10/28/obituaries/henry-prentiss-becton/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Bangor Daily News |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Career == In 1937, Becton started working for Becton, Dickinson and Company, the international medical instruments company that his father co-founded in 1897.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Henry P. Becton {{!}} Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science |url=https://seas.yale.edu/about/sheffield-fellowship/henry-becton |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Yale University}}</ref> His first job was as a traveling salesman in the midwest.<ref name=":4" /> In 1939, he was assigned to the company's office.<ref name=":4" /> He became the assistant treasurer in 1944.<ref name=":4" /> He was elected to the board of directors and was the secretary of the company.<ref name=":4" />
After his father retired in 1948, Becton became the executive vice president.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Becton, Dickinson & Company History |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/becton-dickinson-company-history/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=Funding Universe}}</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopoly, and Business Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFt16gYEs5UC&dq=%22Henry+Becton%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA433 |title=Mergers and economic concentration: hearings before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopoly, and Business Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, on S. 600 .... |date=1979 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=433 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> He was the chairman of the board of director's executive committee from 1961 to February 1987.<ref name=":4" /> He became chairman of the board in May 1972, vice chairman in December 1972, and chairman again in 1977.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 12, 1972 |title=Executive Changes |language=en |page=64 |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/05/12/79468554.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 |access-date=2023-12-16}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> From 1961 through February 1987, he was chairman of the executive committee of the company's board of directors.<ref name=":4" />
Under his leadership, Becton, Dickinson and Company went public, becoming a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability and World Indexes that was listed on the Fortune 500.<ref name=":1" /> It grew from $2.5 million in annual sales and 600 employees to $7 billion in annual sales and 29,000 employees.<ref name=":1" /> He retired as chairman of the board in 1980, serving as vice chairman until February 1987.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /> He was then a director emeritus.<ref name=":4" />
Becton was a director and vice chairman of the National Community Bank (now part of Bank of New York/ Mellon) from 1947 to 1993, and a director of the Bergen County and New Jersey Chambers of Commerce.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1947-01-15 |title=Rutherford, Passaic Banks And Directors at Annual Meetings |pages=1 |work=The Herald-News |location=Passaic, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-rutherford-passaic-bank/136892074/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He chaired the chambers' committee on aviation.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1948-11-18 |title=New Announces His Committees. Becton Heads Chamber's Aviation Group |pages=46 |work=The Record |location=Hackensack, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-new-announces-his-committees/136892215/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> thumb|Becton Center, Yale University
== Honors == The Henry P. Becton School of Nursing & Allied Health at Fairleigh Dickinson University was named in his honor.<ref name=":0" /> The Henry P. Becton Regional High School in East Rutherford, New Jersey was named in his honor.<ref name=":1" />
In 1974, he received the Yale Medal from Yale University.<ref name=":1" /> The Becton Center for Engineering and Applied Science at Yale was named in his honor.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> In addition, Yale's Engineering and Applied Science Department gives the Henry Prentiss Becton Prize in his honor.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Henry Prentiss Becton (1968) {{!}} Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life |url=https://secretary.yale.edu/department/henry-prentiss-becton-1968 |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=secretary.yale.edu}}</ref>
== Personal life == Becton married Jean Sprague Coggan on June 16, 1942.<ref name=":1" /> They lived in Rutherford.<ref name=":8" /> Soon afterward, Becton was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent overseas for World War II as a first sergeant.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1943-08-07 |title=Becton, Dickinson's Long Service Record Praised |pages=9 |work=The Herald-News |location=Passaic, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-becton-dickinsons-long/136891556/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He was promoted to technical sergeant and chief of the combat intelligiance section at the 8th Air Force Fighter Wing Headquarters in England.<ref name=":6" />
Their children were Henry, Jean, Jeffery, Cynthia, and LIzabeth.<ref name=":0" /> The family spent summers in Blue Hill, Maine, where he took up sailing.<ref name=":1" /> He was the Commodore of the Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club.<ref name=":1" /> After his retirement, Becton and his wife spent their summers in Maine and lived at the Dorchester in Naples, Florida, followed by The Moorings in Vero Beach, Florida.<ref name=":1" />
Becton enjoyed singing, sailing, and flying airplanes.<ref name=":1" /> He was a director of the Hackensack Golf Club.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1946-11-13 |title=19th Annual Meeting |pages=13 |work=The Herald-News |location=Passaic, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-news-19th-annual-meeting/136891943/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
He served as a borough councilman for Rutherford, New Jersey, and was president of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=":4" /> He was a founding commissioner of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and a founder of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> He also chaired the Standing Committee for Clinical Thermometers at the U.S. Bureau of Standards.<ref name=":4" />
He served as the vice chair and a trustee of Fairleigh Dickinson University from 1948 to 1994.<ref name=":4" /> He donated land for a new school when the East Rutherford, New Jersey high school burned down; the new building was named the Henry P. Becton Regional High School in his honor.<ref name=":1" /> He was a founding director of the Community Chest in Bergen County (now United Way).<ref name=":1" /> He also was the major donor to the construction of the Becton Center for Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University the building's design incorporates symbolism from his fraternity, St. Anthony Hall.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" />
On October 25, 2009, Becton died from congestive heart failure in Blue Hill, Maine at the age of 95.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becton, Henry}} Category:1914 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Rutherford High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:People from Rutherford, New Jersey Category:Businesspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey Category:Taft School alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:St. Anthony Hall Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:20th-century American politicians Category:Bankers from New Jersey Category:BD (company) people