It was a sunny, warm spring day when then-22-year-old Tim Beekmann sat in the office of Prairie View Elementary interviewing to become a teacher. 

He had just been picked up from his final semester of college at Concordia, and his mother Marlene sat in the car waiting: “I left my mom in the car with the windows down,” Beekmann joked to then-principal Tom Myers. What happened next set the stage for the next 33 years of Beekmann’s life: The panel invited his mother inside. “‘Bring her in! We want to get to know your mom, too,’” Beekmann remembered the group saying. “It was just this whole community. It really was a feeling they made for me walking into that door — I thought, ‘That’s the place I want to work.’ And that’s why I stayed here 33 years.” 

That fateful day and the decades-long career that followed included roles as a teacher of first through fourth grades, educational coordinator, associate principal and ultimately principal of Eden Lake Elementary. At every stage, Beekmann has been known for creating strong relationships. That drive came from his childhood: He didn’t want to become a teacher because he loved school. He wanted to become a teacher because he didn’t.

Beekmann was adopted at eight days old and spent most of his childhood in Willmar, Minnesota. His family was well known in the community. Heidi, his high-achieving sister, led the way in school, and her legacy was tough to follow. “I did not like school. I didn’t fit in. I struggled,” Tim explained. “I was more hands-on, I liked to be more creative, I was not a ‘paper-pencil’ type person. I’d hear, ‘Why can’t you be more like your sister?’”

He was also one of the only Black children in his community. “Teachers would start the year with, ‘Bring in your baby picture and guess who the baby is.’ Well, every year, I brought my baby picture, and then guess who was figured out first?” he joked. It underscored his feeling of otherness. But in third and fourth grade, with Ms. Lynch and Mrs. Swift, things changed. “At some point, they realized, ‘What must this be like for this child who’s always different?’ They made learning fun! They treated me with respect.” Their teaching inspired Beekmann’s life journey. “That’s what I wanted to do, then, is become a teacher like that — the ones who figured me out. And I wanted to be the person to help other kids like school.” 

Before he knew it, he was an Eagle. His sister and brother-in-law moved him into Fountain Place Apartments, just five miles from Prairie View. And on the first day of school in 1992, when first graders entered the building for the first time after leaving the Kindergarten Center, it was their teacher’s first day, too.

Quickly, Beekmann’s love of art and music brought his classroom to life. Each year, his students wrote a musical to perform for their families and other classes. Beekmann’s own parents even attended. Long before hands-on learning became a key educational practice, it was alive and well at Prairie View. Beyond just writing and performing, students were directing, creating backdrops and fashioning costumes. “It was some real-life application,” he explained. “Those are the stories that kids remember when they come back and see me. That’s their great memory of elementary school.” 

Those stories touched Beekmann deeply, shaping not only how he taught, but also how he built relationships and community in his classroom. In his early years at Prairie View, when Eden Prairie did not have the diversity it does today, seeing Mr. Beekmann at the front of the classroom had a profound impact on some students. “I had one child who was adopted into a white family, just like me,” he recalled. “That year he was finally able to say, ‘I like my skin because Mr. Beekmann has the same skin that I do.’” 

“I wanted to become a teacher like that — the ones who figured me out. And I wanted to be the person to help other kids like school.” – Tim Beekmann 

For the next 15 years, Beekmann made a similar difference for countless other students at Prairie View, who each saw in him a little bit of themselves through the relationships he fostered. Then it was time to grow his impact as a school leader: Beekmann’s final six years at Prairie View were spent supporting other teachers as an educational coordinator, and in 2013, he joined Eden Lake as its associate principal. That summer, the lead principal job became available. 

“I want to be known as a leader who not only does things right but, most importantly, does the right things!” wrote Beekmann in his cover letter for the position he would go on to hold for the next 11 years. “I will hold strong to my convictions and will follow through on what needs to be done in the best interest for all children. I want to build a strong and positive reputation that no matter who I am talking to my message will always be the same. People will know who I am and that for which I stand.” 

Being true to himself, like his elementary teachers Ms. Lynch and Mrs. Swift taught him, was key to Beekmann’s leadership journey. He says the Eden Prairie community helped make that possible. “When I became the lead principal, I was the first openly gay principal. Never did I worry that I wouldn’t be supported and encouraged. That’s helped me become a stronger person and be proud of who I am,” he shared. Beekmann collaborated with staff to create a school culture that was welcoming and inclusive for all. “People need to see themselves, and also experience other experiences from other people. Year after year, you look around this place, and it’s like, ‘We are not just saying words in a mission. We really do mean what we say.’” 

Over the next decade, the community didn’t just know who Beekmann was — he knew who they were, too. Every year, he learned the name of almost every child in the incoming kindergarten class. On each walk down the hallway, he would greet dozens of children by name. At first, families found it surprising. “They would say, ‘Why do you know my kid’s name? What happened?’” he remembered. It was important to correct that idea, though, and he would tell families, “My job is to change that narrative. I want to know your child.” 

Through all the ups and downs the principalship would bring — including transitioning nearly 550 elementary students to online and hybrid learning during a global pandemic — Beekmann stayed focused on the sense of community he hoped to build at Eden Lake. Students felt it. “When I see kids running off the bus, skipping into the building or skipping into the hallway, I’m like, ‘This is fantastic. They want to be here,’” he smiled. “When you have a break coming up and kids are like, ‘Ugh… I want to be at school’ — that’s pretty cool.” 

As Beekmann’s retirement begins, he’s excited for new principal Brett Lobben (‘91) to take the reins. “Things at Eden Lake are so good and tight and strong, and I feel like now the time is right to have somebody come in with fresh eyes. It’s a fresh new partnership, and that gets people excited,” Beekmann expressed. 

He’s excited, too, for his own next step. “I love landscaping, I love design work, I love music — I really have no idea what the next stage is going to be,” he explained. “I just knew 33 years was the right time to wrap up a robust, wonderful career of making connections with the students, the families, the staff, the community.”

What does Beekmann hope families, staff and students remember when they think of him? “That I was happy, approachable, positive. That they knew I was in it for the right reasons — that I loved school and I wanted them to love school.” And, of course: “That I knew their name.”

Listen to Tim's interview from our 100 Years of Inspiring Each Oral History Project!