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| Graduated from Pomfret School in Connecticut, and was accepted to Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. |
| At age 17, he took his first trip to Africa with Quentin Keynes, Charles Darwin’s great grandson, and spent the summer photographing wildlife in South Africa, Zululand, Bechuanaland, Portuguese East Africa, Madagascar and Kenya, using his Voigtlander camera. |
| Attended Felsted College in Essex, England from 1956 to 1957. |
| Attended Yale University from 1957 to 1961. Originally enrolled in pre-med, Beard changed his major to Art and studied with Joseph Albers, Neil Welliver, Vincent Scully and Alex Katz, among others. |
| Began a great friendship with artist Richard Lindner, whom he met in New York City at a Thanksgiving lunch with Arne Ekstrom. Lindner later painted the “Crocodile and Large Woman” for the publication, Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men. |
| Started working for Condé Nast while still at Yale. |
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