The Life of President Julius Wesley Becton: Home

General Julius Wesley Becton (1926-2023)

• Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1926. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in July 1944, graduated infantry Officer Candidate School in 1945, and served with 93rd Infantry Division. 
• He separated from the Army in 1946 and received a football scholarship to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., where he was one of the school’s first Black students. He returned to active duty in 1948, after President Harry S. Truman ordered the military to integrate.
• Becton married his high school sweetheart, Louise Thornton, on January 29, 1948. They have five children together.
• Becton retired from the U.S. Army in 1983, after nearly 40 years of service. However, his public service career was far from over. From 1984 to 1985, he served as the Director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in the United States Agency for International Development (US AID).
• Julius Wesley Becton Jr. graduated from Prairie View Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He received a Master’s in economics from the University of Maryland in 1967. He is also a graduate of the United States Command and General Staff College, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the National War College.
• From 1989 until 1994, Becton returned to his alma mater as the fifth president of Prairie View A&M University. 
• General Becton served in the United States Army for almost 40 years and retired at the rank of Lieutenant General. He is a veteran of three wars and was the first graduate of Prairie View A&M University to attain star rank in the military.