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Paul Louis Beckett was born October 18, 1913 in Warren County, Illinois. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1935 at Monmouth College, his Masters of Arts at the University of Illinois in 1938, and his PhD at the University of California Los Angeles in 1949. Beckett was a professor of Political Science at Washington State University from 1947 to 1977.

During the early 1940s Beckett was employed in municipal government in Los Angeles and also worked in a war-time administrative agency in Washington, D.C. From 1945 to 1947 he was a member of the faculty at the University of New Mexico, and in 1947 he joined the Political Science faculty of Washington State College. His field of special expertise was municipal government. His interests and research also included the politics of organization and reorganization, individual and group behavior in organizations, decision making, leadership and authority, communication, and how to ensure administrative responsiveness and responsibility.

During the 1950s, Beckett actively participated in the establishment of municipal governments while teaching at the American University in Beirut. In 1952, Beckett, his wife, and their two young children traveled to Beirut, where he established the Department of Political Science at the American University and taught the history and fundamentals of municipal government. After returning from Beirut, Beckett served as chair of the Department of Political Science for eight years. In 1957 he was a public administration consultant to the planning board of the Pakistani government, which at that time encompassed East Pakistan, which was later known as Bangladesh.

In addition to his teaching and administrative activities, Beckett was also an active member of the American Political Science Association, the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association, The American Association of University Professors, and the American Society for Public Administration.