On June 14, 2014, more than 2,400 friends, family and fellow officers gathered in Las Vegas to pay their respects to police officer Alyn Beck, a University of Wyoming alumnus who was killed in the line of duty on June 8. Originally from Green River, Wyo., Beck, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served a two-year mission in Brazil before attending UW. During a class at UW, he proposed to his wife Nicole Hastings, and they were married in 1996. Beck graduated in 1998 with degrees in administration of justice and international studies, and the couple moved to Las Vegas in 1999 following Nicole’s graduation, where Beck soon began his career in law enforcement with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. At the time of his death, Beck was in the process of testing for promotion to sergeant. He and his partner, Igor Soldo, were shot and killed by a couple who went on to kill a civilian at another location.
Beck is survived by his wife and three children—a son, 14, and daughters, ages 11 years and 10 months—as well as seven siblings and his parents. He was known as a devoted father and husband, and an exemplary police officer. Nicole Beck says that he also loved designing and building carpentry projects in their garage for his family and friends. His last big project was a crib and dresser for his newborn baby. “To those that knew him well, it was obvious that he had a mind of an engineer,” she says. He also embraced the role of mentor and enjoyed working with the youth at his church. After the service in Las Vegas, Beck was laid to rest in Nicole’s hometown of Afton, Wyo.
Nicole says he was always very proud of his Wyoming roots and so it felt right to have him buried there. “He often bragged to people about how growing up in Wyoming made him the man he was,” she says. “He had a deep love for Wyoming and always dreamed of returning to live there someday.”
One of Beck’s brothers, Stephen, says, “Alyn got it.” He used his humor to make people happy and knew what was important. When Stephen returned from his own mission and wasn’t sure what direction to take, he remembers the sage advice older brother, Alyn, gave him. “He had his kids with him, and he was hugging them,” Stephen says. “He said, ‘Stephen, this is what it’s all about. No matter what you do, this is what’s important.’ ” Stephen is now completing his master’s degree in social work at UW.
“Alyn was a man among men—he was kind, a man of great faith, generous, brilliantly intelligent, patriotic, hardworking, funny, service oriented, mischievous, spiritual, and he loved his family (his friends and his savior) to his very core,” says Greg Livingston, assistant manager for UW’s procurement services office. Livingston and his wife, Kori Wilson Livingston, met Alyn and Nicole Beck when they were all attending UW. “I’m honored to call him friend and have been so touched by the responses of people who felt the same way about him. His example of good will live on in his deeds, his wonderful wife and their children.”
