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

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 of 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, a time when many colonized countries in the Middle East gained independence, 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 extended his administrative duties at Washington State College, serving 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.

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.