The couple settled in Rome for two years, returning to the U.S. in 1912 with their first daughter Beata (later a painter married to Vernon Porter).

His first major commission came in 1915, when he designed three statues for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, for which he received a silver medal.

His 1919 submission for a medal commemorating the Treaty of Versailles was selected as the winner by the American Numismatic Society.

He was president of the National Sculpture Society from 1926 to 1927 and also taught at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the Grand Central School of Art.

In 1917 Beach built a studio in Brewster, New York on 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land he acquired in trade from a local farmer for two sculptures.