Richard Andrew BECKNER

Dick Beckner competed at the 1956 Olympics for the United States. He won one individual AAU title, the 1956 rings, helping his Los Angeles Turners to the team title in 1959-61. He also won two silver and three bronze medals at the AAUs. Beckner won nine gold medals at the 1955 Pan American Games, winning on the rings, parallel bars, and with the US team in all-around, and in all the team apparatus events. His best event was the parallel bars, which he also won at the Southern Pacific AAU in 1949, 1951, and 1955. Beckner attended Los Angeles State College. He later frequently judged high school and college gymnastics meets. Beckner worked as a high school phys ed teacher, also coaching gymnastics. His brother, Jack Beckner, was the top US gymnast of the 1950s.