Beckwith has been cited as a significant part of academic and policy debates in the period about the potential for German-style industrial education in the United States.

[1] During World War I, he attended an officer's training camp but was discharged for physical disability,[1] which began a long series of brief positions with a variety of institutions.

In his memoirs, Thompson describes Beckwith as "an extremely odd character, utterly unable to adapt to his environment.

[1] After his death, a number of letters were found addressed to relatives and university administrators in Beckwith's hand; the letters complained of a life of failure and misunderstanding, apologized to relatives, and made clear that the murder was premeditated (and that Beckwith had contemplated murdering other academic administrators previously).

"[10] Physicians and psychologists interviewed by The New York Times suggested Beckwith had an "exaggerated ego" and compared him to the notorious murderer Harry Kendall Thaw.