News

2025-08-04
Yesterday, MCWI's director, Jonathan Noyalas, received the sad news of the passing of Brandon H. Beck. Dr. Beck was the founding director of MCWI, Noyalas's mentor, supporter, and cherished friend. Brandon's scholarship on Winchester and the Civil War put Winchester on the map. His Three Battles of Winchester guidebook, along with studies of the First, Second, and Third Battles of Winchester, are the foundational building blocks upon which all historians who have written about Winchester's Civil War history have built. Throughout this academic year, MCWI will honor Dr. Beck's legacy in various ways, including dedicating volume 9 of the Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, a publication to which he contributed, to him and naming the 2026 summer fellowship in his honor. Since 1997, the year that Noyalas entered Shenandoah University as an undergraduate student, he has had the opportunity to work with Brandon on various projects, tours, and preservation efforts. The photo below was taken in October 2013 during a tour the two led for MCWI about the Second Battle of Winchester. May Brandon rest in peace.
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