Lawrence “Larry” Beck, co-founder and a key executive at trash-hauling giant Waste Management, Inc. during the years it was based in the Chicago area, has passed away. He had been a Harbor Springs resident since the mid-1980s and had lived in Darien, MI before that.
Born in Chicago, Beck grew up on the South Side and graduated in 1945 from Hirsch Metropolitan High School. He then served in the Army Air Forces in 1945 and 1946 before beginning a career as a professional truck driver. In 1953, Beck founded Atlas Refuse Disposal, a trash-hauling firm in the south suburbs by buying Harvey Scavenger Service — which was just one route and one truck — for $15,000.
In 1969, Beck’s firm joined up with four other scavenger companies to buy a 150-acre landfill area in Calumet City, known as Calumet Industrial Development, to handle refuse from the south suburbs. Beck teamed up with Buntrock and Wayne Huizenga, and decided to go public with their newly combined company, Waste Management, in 1971. Waste Management eventually established its headquarters in Oak Brook then relocated to Houston after a 1998 merger. Waste Management grew rapidly, mostly through acquisitions, and eventually became the largest waste hauler in the U.S. Beck’s role with the company was as a senior vice president of operations. He later served as president of Waste Management’s chemical waste management subsidiary. Beck retired from Waste Management in the mid-1980s.
“He not only hired good people, but he really motivated them and encouraged them,” recalled retired Waste Management chairman and CEO Dean Buntrock, also one of Waste Management’s co-founders. “He was highly respected by his competitors and his partners.”
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