Born in Piqua, Ohio to James Hart and Margaret Bashore Beard, James B Beard was raised in Bradford, Ohio.
[2] Over the course of his career, Beard was named a fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
[3] He retired in 1992,[2] and left his writings to Michigan State's Turfgrass Information Center in 2003.
[4] The next year, Purdue granted Beard an honorary doctorate in agriculture.
[5] In 2009, Beard received the Veitch Memorial Medal awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society,[1] followed by the Crop Science Society of America Presidential Award in 2014.