1939
Born Los Angeles, California. Parents Robert Seth Beasley and Bernice (Palmer) Beasley. Brother, Palmer, three years older. Attends public schools.

1948
Seriously injured in fall from tree, misses a half year of school. Extensive therapy is required to regain ability to walk.

1952
Takes required metal shop class in eighth grade. Discovers a talent for metalwork and spends as much time as possible during and after school working in the metal shop.

1954
Wins prize in national contest in metalworking.

1955
Travels to Japan with a group of Boy Scouts sponsored by the Japanese government.

1955-57
Seriously involved in building racing cars while attending high school. Helps build a Bonneville "flat-head Ford" racer that breaks the 150 mph barrier.

1957-59
Attends Dartmouth College. Takes first art courses. Requests permission to do sculptures instead of drawings for final course assignment. Studies with sculptor Winslow Eaves, does first bronze casting. Attends summer school at Otis Art Institute.

1959
Transfers to the University of California, Berkeley, as a sculpture major. Studies with Sidney Gordin and Richard O'Hanlon. While at Berkeley Beasley is exposed to sculptors Jacques Schnier, Julius Schmidt, Wilfred Zogbaum, William King, Eduardo Paolozzi, and critic Harold Rosenberg.

1960
Wins prize in The Oakland Museum Sculpture Annual with the cast-iron sculpture Trillion (plate 28). Begins studies with Peter Voulkos and Harold Paris, who have just joined the faculty at Berkeley. Helps build the Garbanzo Works foundry in Berkeley, one of the country's first artist-run foundries.

1961
In January, leaves school to hitchhike through Mexico and Central America and works as a deckhand on interisland schooners in the West Indies. Returns to Berkeley in September and resumes his studies. Begins showing at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. Wins prize in San Francisco Art Annual with sculpture Lemures. Museum of Modern Art curator Dorothy Miller introduces Beasley's work to fellow MOMA curator William Seitz, who selects Tree House to be in The Art of Assemblage show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Beasley works for Peter Voulkos, casting and welding the work for Voulkos's first show of bronze sculpture. Meets Willem de Kooning, who comes to U.C. Berkeley for a workshop.

1962
Graduates from U.C. Berkeley with a bachelor of arts degree. Chorus acquired for the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art. Rents a dilapidated warehouse in West Oakland and builds his own foundry.

1963
First major solo show held at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. Receives important reviews from the Los Angeles art critics. Prometheus II acquired by the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Daedalus by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Beasley is selected to be one of eleven sculptors to represent the United States at the Biennale de Paris. His sculpture Icarus (plates 3 and 41) wins the Purchase Prize and is acquired by André Malraux, Minister of Culture, for the French National Collection. Beasley makes first trip to Europe. Travels
to France, Italy, Spain, and Greece. Visits the important art museums as well as the prehistoric cave of Altamira in Spain for the first of many visits.

1964
Beasley's first New York solo show at the Kornblee Gallery. Meets David Smith. Buys a run-down, abandoned factory complex on Lewis Street in West Oakland and builds a one-man foundry and living quarters in the new studio. Photographer Joanne Leonard joins him living at the studio.

1965
Has his first San Francisco solo show at the Hansen Gallery. Meets young Canadian Kwakiutl Indian carver Tony Hunt, who is having an exhibition at the Kroeber Museum at U.C. Berkeley. Buys three of Hunt's carvings, beginning a lasting friendship with this artist, and initiates a collection of ethnographic art.

1966
Second Los Angeles solo show at David Stuart Gallery. U.C.L.A. acquires Dione for the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden.

1967
Begins dreaming about transparent sculpture and undertakes research on transparent materials. Settles on acrylic, even though industry experts are discouraging about the possibility of doing large castings in this material.

1968
After months of experimentation, achieves acrylic castings up to four inches thick. Is selected for an invitational competition for the first monumental sculpture to be commissioned by the State of California. Shows the jury his first attempts at transparent sculpture and is selected as a finalist for the commission. Makes his largest cast-ing to date and wins the competition (Apolymon model;. Visits DuPont Corporation headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking technical and financial assistance for the monumental cast-acrylic sculpture. DuPont agrees to supply a generous amount of material but declines any technical help. For the first time Beasley attends the International Sculpture Conference, lecturing on his developments in acrylic casting. Visits Willem de Kooning at his new studio in Springs, New York.

1969
Through exhaustive research, makes a major breakthrough in casting technology. Develops a process that can cast acrylic sculpture in monumental scale. Builds the mold for the State of California commission and pours thirteen thousand pounds of liquid acrylic into it. The casting cures for six weeks before the mold is opened.

1970
The large sculpture for California is finished and polished. Apolymon is unveiled at the state capitol and draws abundant national press attention. Beasley participates in a number of important nationwide group shows at museums, including Milwaukee Art Center, Stanford University Art Museum, Sheldon Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, and U.C. Berkeley Art Museum, and at the Osaka World's Fair.

1971
The Wichita Art Museum acquires Tragamitus for its permanent collection. Beasley is included in Time magazine article "Transparent Sculpture." Meets sculptor Kenneth Snelson and begins long friendship. Meets Laurence Leaute, a young French woman visiting California. Three weeks later, travels with her back to Paris,where he convinces her to move to Oakland to live with him. Has solo show at Andre Emmerich Gallery in New York, and Emmerich Gallery becomes his New York dealer.

1972-73
Exhibits in two shows in Paris, Salon de Mai and Salon de la Jeune Sculptures. Marries Laurence in France. Makes Tragamon, a seven-foot-high cast-acrylic sculpture, for The Oakland Museum. Santa Barbara Museum of Art acquires Tacoignier for its permanent collection. Bruce and Laurence travel to Truk in Micronesia to go scuba diving, and then on to New Guinea, where they visit remote villages on the Sepik River.

1974
Creates Big Red, a monumental forty-foot-long steel sculpture (plate 101). Awarded commission for a cast-acrylic sculpture by the federal government for the courthouse in San Diego. The National Museum of American Art in Washington acquires Scalar Gyration.

1975
Builds a large new building at his studio complex with inside and outside cranes for large-scale metal fabrication. Young sculptor Dan Dykes becomes his chief studio assistant, beginning a long personal and professional relationship. Does a large commission (Six Tonner;) in painted steel for Lakeside Center in Illinois.
Birth of Bruce and Laurence's first child, a son, Julien.

1976-77
Approached by leading oceanographers to cast an all-transparent bathysphere. A scuba diver since his teens, Beasley is intrigued by this use of his invention and agrees to take on the project. Problems turn out to be more difficult than anticipated, but the castings finally succeed, and he builds two submersibles with all-transparent crew compartments. The Exploratorium of San Francisco exhibits the bathysphere before it goes into subsea service. Daughter Celia is born.

1978
Does three large commissions in metal: the Miami International Airport (Atea;) state office building in San Bernardino, California (The Gallup Flyer); and the San Francisco International Airport (The Hesperides;). Meets George Rickey at the International Sculpture Conference in Toronto and begins long friendship.

1980
Works informally with professor of crystallography at U.C. Berkeley, pursuing his interest in crystal structure. Lectures at the International Sculpture Conference in Washington, D.C., where he meets Isamu Noguchi.

1981
Again visits the prehistoric caves in France, including the cave of Lascaux.

1982
Visits Ed Kienholz and Nancy Reddin in Hope, Idaho. Exhibits in 100 Years of California Sculpture at The Oakland Museum.

1983
Stanford University purchases twenty-eight-foot stainless steel sculpture Vanguard. He makes Arristus, a large stainless steel sculpture, for the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California. Revisits the prehistoric caves in France and Spain, including Lascaux and Altamira. The American Association for the Advancement of Science publishes a major article on Beasley's contribution to science: his invention of the process for massive acrylic casting that is now used worldwide to make all transparent bathyspheres, windows for submersible vehicles, large aquarium windows, and other scientific uses.

1984
Makes Artemon, a thirty-two-foot stainless steel sculpture, for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Artemon is included in The California Sculpture Show, an exhibition of twelve monumental sculptures that travels to Bordeaux, France; Mannheim, Germany; and Yorkshire, England. Visits Eduardo Chillida, whom Beasley greatly admires, for the first time, in San Sebastián, Spain. Chillida takes Beasley to see Wind Combs, his series of great iron sculptures set into the rocks of Donostia Bay.

1985
Installs Arctos (plate 104), a thirty-three-foot stainless steel sculpture, for the city of Anchorage, Alaska.

1986
Struggles with models for a new style of work involving complex intersecting geometric forms. Publishes an article on prehistoric sculpture in Bulletin de la Société Prehistorique, a French journal of prehistory. Receives a commendation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) because the transparent submersible he built located and recovered the crew compartment after the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

1987
Participates in the International Steel Sculpture Symposium in Krefeld, Germany, at the Kleinewefers factory. Creates a large Cor-Ten steel piece (Titiopoli's Arch; in the new style of intersecting geometric forms. Begins friendship with German sculptor Ingo Ronkholz.

1988
Vigorously pursues the new metalwork, beginning an investigation of computers to visualize complex geometric relationships prior to making them. Is assisted by Don Glaser at U.C. Berkeley.

1989
Learns and modifies a three-dimensional computer solid modeling system to allow spontaneous changes to and visualization of complex geometric models prior to physical construction. Lectures on contemporary American sculpture in Hong Kong and Japan. Receives Individual Artist Award from the City of Oakland. Visits Eduardo Chillida in San Sebastián, Spain. San Francisco Bay Area is struck by the Loma Prieta earthquake. Beasley's studio is only blocks from the Cypress Freeway structure that collapses, killing forty-one people. His
studio is damaged but not destroyed. He and his son work in the rescue efforts.

1990
Solves technical problems associated with the precision required by the new style. Makes Pillars of Cypress, a sculpture cast from steel beams that failed in the freeway collapse, as a tribute to his neighbors' efforts to rescue those trapped in the fallen freeway. Studio requires extensive repair due to earthquake damage. Begins long collaboration doing patinas with artist Lex Lucius.

1991
The Smithsonian Institution produces a nationally aired TV program on Beasley's invention of the process for acrylic casting. Visits marble quarries in Pietrasanta and Carrara, Italy, to investigate stone carving facilities. Commissions his first stone piece, nine feet high.

1992
Installs Guardian , an eighteen-foot-high bronze sculpture, at the Federal Home Loan Bank in San Francisco.

1993
Exhibits at the Frankfurt and Chicago Art Fairs and installs Artemon at Andre Emmerich's Top Gallant Farm in New York. The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, acquires Bateleur II. He is named to the Board of Directors of the International Sculpture Center, where he meets Gio Pomodoro and begins a friendship and correspondence.

1994
Solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany. The museum purchases Spokesman II, Knight's Gambit II (plate 126), and Messenger II. Visits Gio Pomodoro in Pietrasanta, Italy.

1995
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquires Breakout.

1996
Solo exhibitions in Dortmund and Bad Homberg, Germany. Group exhibitions in Europe and the United States. Young sculptor Albert Dicruttalo apprentices with Beasley for the summer.

1997
Begins construction of a long-dreamed-of sculpture garden adjacent to the studio. Artist Jennifer Craigie begins as Beasley's model maker.

1998
Beasley's work is included in the United States' representation at the Cairo Biennale, and he and Laurence visit Egypt. The Egyptian government purchases Ally II for its national collection. Lectures at International Conference on Prehistoric Art, Santander, Spain, and at the International Sculpture Conference in Chicago, where he presents the ISC Lifetime Achievement Award to Eduardo Chillida. Albert Dicruttalo becomes Beasley's chief assistant.

1999
Travels to southern India to investigate possibilities for carving granite sculptures there. Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture park in New Jersey, purchases the thirty-foot stainless steel sculpture Dorion.

2000
Is one of two Americans on the team investigating the newly discovered prehistoric cave of Chauvet in France, then travels to Portugal to carve granite. Casts an eight-thousand-pound cast-iron sculpture at Siempelkamp GmbH, Germany's largest iron foundry. Completes commission for a large outdoor sculpture at the University of Texas, Houston. Gio and Etta Pomodoro visit Bruce and Laurence at their home in Oakland.

2001
Wins competition for a monumental sculpture at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall. Travels to Portugal to work on sculptures at Singranova granite quarry. Participates in International Sculpture Symposium in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. The city of Bad Homberg, Germany, purchases Spokesman II (.Lex Lucius trains Laurence to do Bruce's patinas.

2002
Wins competition for a large outdoor sculpture for the University of Miami, Oxford, Ohio. Installs thirty-foot-high sculpture Vitality in front of Oakland City Hall. Returns to Portugal to work on sculptures at Singranova granite quarry. Travels to Thailand, where his brother, Palmer Beasley, is awarded the King Midol Prize in International Medicine. Visits the newly opened Isamu Noguchi's Garden Museum on Kagawa-Ken Island, Japan. Presents the International Sculpture Conference Lifetime Achievement Award to Gio Pomodoro.

2003
Dartmouth College makes a permanent installation of six sculptures by Peter Voulkos and six by Bruce Beasley in the college's new Baker Library in Hanover, New Hampshire. Installs large sculpture for the city of Brea, California.

2004
Travels to Chongwu, China, to work on granite sculptures. Presents the ISC Lifetime Achievement Award to Christo.

2005
Beasley has his first major retrospective exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California.