Beck graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1947,[2] studied at Brooklyn College (Bachelor's degree 1951) and in 1956 received his PhD from Yale University under Shizuo Kakutani.

He witnessed the “Dow Riots” of October 18, 1967 in the Commerce Building (now Ingraham Hall), condemning the police violence against students at a faculty meeting.

[7] Beck made headlines in 1977 when he offered a $100 grant to a "white Quaker female student with financial need" to highlight the University of Wisconsin's policy of accepting gifts with discriminatory conditions attached.

[6][10] Arguing against overtime for some and unemployment for other, he predicted that, unchecked, companies would offer little stability, longer hours and create a global economy of “exoslavery,” where the conditions of slavery could be moved to other countries.

[6][10] He condemned economists for calling this rational and free trade, predicting increases in underemployment, homelessness, a rise in TB, and disinvestment in basic research, among other things.