M. Allan Beal; Expert on Arctic Aided Submarine Navigation

M. Allan Beal, an Arctic Ocean expert whose work at Point Loma’s Arctic Submarine Laboratories helped submarines negotiate ice-covered waters, has died. He was 65.

Beal, one of the first scientists to study sound detection under the Arctic ice, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his home in San Diego.

Descended from a family of Maine lobstermen and sea captains, Beal served as chief scientist on seven icebreaker expeditions and several nuclear submarine cruises under the polar icecap. In 1965 he helped set up the Arctic Room at the Navy’s Point Loma research station to study the force necessary for submarines to break through thick surface ice.

After studying geology at the University of Maine, Beal moved to California in 1953 to attend the graduate school at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. He later earned a doctorate from Oregon State University.

Beal served as project leader of the Scripps Arctic Program for the International Geophysical Year in 1955. In 1957, he installed an innovative gauge at Point Barrow, Alaska, that measured tides in the frozen waters by measuring sediment.

“Our recreation consisted of radio and hi-fi listening,” he told The Times in 1959, describing the experience of living in a scientific settlement at the tip of Alaska. “And just a few miles away a community of several thousand Eskimos provided moving pictures and other conveniences of city life.”

Beal worked at Point Loma from 1959 until he retired in 1990 to write short stories about his adventures in the Arctic and growing up on the coast of Maine.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, three children, Carole, Larraine and Allison, and a sister, Ruth Sattleberg.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Center for Women’s Studies and Services, 2467 E St., San Diego, Calif. 92102.