Stolen years ago, memorial plaque honoring late La Cañada Elementary teacher is replaced

In his 32 years of teaching science and leading the chorus at La Cañada Elementary School, Frank Beemer became something of a campus legend.

Students and colleagues — some who were former students of his as children — knew him for his warmth, winning ways with children and the passion he applied to his life’s work up until his death in 2003.

It was Beemer’s love of science that brought lessons to life and his love of music that inspired him to pen La Cañada Elementary’s official school song, “The Power and Pride of LCE,” still sung at school assemblies.

“He knew me when I was Barbie,” recalled fifth-grade teacher and current chorus leader Barb Drange, who met Beemer in the early 1970s at age 8, when her father, Don Hingst, was the school principal. “The music and the kids and the teaching were what was important to him.”

Shortly after Beemer’s passing from congestive heart failure, his family worked with LCE administrators and parents to install a plaque on a prominent building where generations of future students could learn about the longtime educator’s contributions to the school.

Installed in May 2004, the piece stood as one of many memorials the campus had amassed since its opening in its nearly 130-year history, including a nearby plaque honoring student Molly Petit, who was killed in 1992 while riding her bicycle home from school.

So about five years later, when Beemer and Petit’s plaques were stolen, presumably for the monetary value of their metal, the school community was shocked.

“The fact he wasn’t in his spot where he was supposed to be, that was disturbing,” said fourth-grade teacher Dale Freyberger, a former colleague and friend.

Petit’s plaque was rebuilt and placed in a school garden, but for years the only sign of Beemer’s memorial were the scratch marks in the brickwork where the burglar had pried the piece loose from its fittings.

Until last week. That’s when the entire La Cañada Elementary School campus joined members of Beemer’s family — including wife June, brother Rich and daughters Erin and Andrea — in a school assembly held to dedicate a newly re-created plaque identical to the one that had been stolen.

“This was such a special occasion,” June Beemer said of the Dec. 17 dedication. “Frank was kind of a popular guy and I think it had a lot to do with the chorus. It was especially poignant at Christmas; he always loved Christmas.”

She thanked the school’s PTA, staff and Principal Emily Blaney for working with family members to reinstall the plaque and hold the assembly. Erin Beemer said she and family members have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of affection and well wishes that have followed in the wake of the event.

For Blaney, it’s all part and parcel of being a member of the LCE community.

“The neat thing at this school in particular is just the sense of family,” the principal said. “We don’t forget those important people who helped make the place the way it is.”

At last week’s ceremony Drange, who was asked in 2002 to take over leadership of the school chorus by Beemer himself, played an original acoustic recording of “The Power and Pride of LCE,” sung by its composer.

“LCE stands for La Cañada Elementary,

A place where kids and grown-ups love to be.

LCE where the students all are free

To learn and live and grow independently,” the anthem began.

June Beemer said the songful ceremony was a fitting remembrance of her husband.

“It really kind of hit me,” she said. “It was hard, but when it actually came down to it, I think his spirit was there — it’s always in the chorus.”

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine