Michael Allen Beard

Michael Allen Beard, 71, of Robinson, IL, passed away on Saturday, August 1, 2026, at Twin Lakes Extended Care in Paris, IL. Mike was born on May 9, 1955, in Robinson, and he grew up here, too. He was a bit of a wild child, and if you want to know just how wild, ask about the Mustang. He'd hopped it up until it was fast enough to drag race, and drag race it he did! He once let his mom borrow it, and it ran so fast that she pulled off to the side of the road, left it sitting there, and called her husband to come pick her up. They made Mike sell it soon after. That was the end of the Mustang, but it was only the beginning of a lifetime spent under the hood. After all, Mike was good with motors, and he worked on cars for the rest of his life.

The same hands that were good with an engine turned out to be good with a torch. Mike went to work at EH Baare when it first opened and stayed for thirty-five years as a MIG welder. Later on, he did some work at Hershey, and that's where he finished out his career before retiring. He gave some of his time to the Robinson fire department too, serving as a volunteer fireman when the town needed hands it could count on.

When he wasn't working, Mike was outdoors. He loved to camp, and Sullivan Lake was a favorite, though he made it to Shakamak too. He loved to fish at Sam Parr and at the lake near the Newton power plant, and that's actually where he taught his son Sam how to swim, by the simple method of throwing him in the water. He was a gardener as well. He grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, and just about anything else that would come up out of the ground, flowers and trees included. He put in a whole stand of apple trees, and they grew tall, and what's more, they still produce.

His boys took part in all of it. They camped and fished and worked alongside him, and they went with him to the Hulman Center in Terre Haute for car shows and for concerts, because Mike loved his rock music. He saw Kiss and Alice Cooper and a good many hair metal bands in his day. He taught his son Sam how to weld and how to work on cars, passing down the same skills that had earned him his living, and the two of them went to Crossroads Dragway in Terre Haute to watch the races together. He went to his boys' games too, and he'd leave work early to make sure he was there to see them play.

Baseball had a hold on him whether his own boys were on the field or the pros were. Mike was a devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan, and he took in a number of Cardinals vs. Cubs games over the years. But the biggest trip on the calendar was Florida, where the family went anywhere from three weeks to a month every single year. They did Disney and Busch Gardens and the fort at Fort Lauderdale, and they even got to watch a space shuttle launch once. They always stayed at Daytona Beach and spent most of their time right on the sand. The turtles and the dolphins and the ocean were a gift, but the real gift was each other, a stretch of days every year that belonged to the family and no one else.

And when the family wasn't loading up for Florida, they were often loading up for Indiana. Mike's best friend was Larry Granderson, whose family lived over in Rockport, and he and the boys made many trips to visit. He and Larry were forever playing pranks on each other, the kind of friendship that runs on give and take and a whole lot of laughing. But as much as Mike loved good company, he knew the worth of his own too. For years, if the weather was good and the day was his own, Mike was out on his motorcycle. He put a lot of miles on his Harley, riding all over locally and running down to Kentucky a few times just for the fun of it. He knew how to enjoy himself, and he didn't need much to do it. Give him a pool table at Toot's Bar, and he was happy, and he was a great shot besides, the kind of player who cleared the table and left you wondering how.

He liked a good joke as much as a good time, and his boys were his favorite targets. When each of them turned twenty-one, Mike convinced them they'd have to take twenty-one shots of Jack to mark the occasion, which was, of course, a complete lie. But Mike wasn't all jokes when it came to his boys. When they did something wrong, they were ruled by an iron fist, and they learned early that they had to go pick out their own switch. They got their backsides whooped more than once, and if Mike caught them doing something foolish, he pointed it out and made sure the lesson stuck, never afraid to let them learn it the hard way.

Time has a way of sanding down the hard edges, though, and Mike was no exception. Toward the end of his life, he grew into one of the most caring men you'd ever meet. He started taking strangers in, which worried his kids, who warned him he didn't really know these people, and sure enough, more than once they'd steal from him. He let them stay anyway, because he couldn't stand the thought of anyone being out on the street. Truth be told, he'd been that way his whole life, always looking to help someone in need, and in the end that was the truest thing about him. He lived hard and he loved hard, and the people who knew him best wouldn't have had him any other way.

Mike is survived by his sons, Neil Beard and Samuel Beard (Amy Lucas); by several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; by his best friend, Larry Granderson; and by his former wife, Mary Lewis. He was preceded in death by his father, Samuel "Jack" Beard, and his mother, Dorothy (McCord) Beard.

A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12th, at the Robinson New Cemetery, with Celebrant Curt Goodwine officiating. During the service, family and friends will be given the opportunity to share some of their favorite memories of Mike. Memorials may be made to his memorial fund, with checks made payable to "Neil Beard". Memorial envelopes will be available at the cemetery and at the Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson, who is assisting the family at this time.