“Cap” Beesley Goes Ivy League

New Haven, Conn.--Yale University has tapped C.R. “Cap” Beesley to chair the advisory board overseeing a major expansion of the gem and mineral exhibit at its historic Peabody Museum of Natural History.

A graduate gemologist who opened American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) in 1977, Beesley exited the lab when then-owners Collectors’ Universe decided to get out of the jewelry business and sold the lab to its current owner, Christopher Smith.

But, Beesley began working with the Peabody even before he left the lab he started.

He said he first became involved with the museum in 2004 or 2005, brought on board by well-known gem merchant and 1962 Yale graduate Benjamin Zucker.
 
Both have contributed much time and many gifts to the museum over the years.

Now, Beesley is chairing the museum’s Gem & Mineral Advisory Board, which is overseeing a major renovation and expansion of the Hall of Minerals, Earth and Space, which coincides with the museum’s 150th anniversary.

In doing so, he finds himself in some interesting company. Among those on the board is producer, director and 1989 Yale graduate Shawn Levy, whose credits include Night at the Museum and its sequels, and billionaire, Biosphere 2 founder and 1967 Yale graduate Ed Bass.  

“I’m probably the only guy who’s not a Yalie on the board,” Beesley laughed.

Since his appointment as chair, Beesley has traveled to China to acquire what he described as “minerals on steroids” to add to the museum’s permanent collection--a 5-foot-long, 4-foot-high piece of lime-green fluorite and a chunk of aragonite that’s almost the same size.

They seem like fitting specimens for a university where mineralogist James Dwight Dana, who is considered the father of systemic mineral classification, attended school and once taught.

The renovated and expanded mineral exhibit at Yale’s Peabody Museum is slated to open in the fall and will be named for Boston-based entrepreneur and mineral collector David Friend (Yale ’69), who put $4 million behind the project.

Beesley said in addition to the outsized specimens he’s acquired, a 75-carat Burma sapphire, a 77-carat fancy intense yellow diamond and blue diamond necklace that’s in the Smithsonian’s collection are slated to be among the gemstones on display.

Those interested in making loans or donations to the hall can contact Beesley at capbeesley@yahoo.com.