San Francisco County
Biographies
ROLAND
BECSEY
The well established reputation of Roland Becsey as an attorney of San Francisco has been attained through many years of successful practice and most acceptable methods employed in the conduct of cases which have been assigned to him. He is a native son of San Francisco, his birth having occurred here on September 11, 1879.
Mr. Becsey is a son of the later Joseph A. and Eugenia (Reguin) Becsey. The former was born in Hungary, and came to the United States in his youth. During the Civil war he served in the Union Army as a member of the engineers’ corps under General Sherman. He was a noted linguist, and just after the close of the war he was appointed secretary of a mission which was sent to South America. On his return from this mission he entered the United States patent office, and in 1871 he was transferred to the United States mint in San Francisco as interpreter. In this capacity, he remained for forty years, and his death occurred April 30, 1915. His wife, who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, died in the year 1926.
Roland Becsey completed his grade and high school studies in San Francisco, and then took up his preparation for a law career in the office of Judge Robert Y. Hayne. In 1901, he successfully passed the bar examination and was admitted to practice in the courts of California. He has continued in this city since that date, his services having been in increasing demand through the years, and an extraordinary measure of success having been his reward for ability and honest methods. During the period from 1910 until 1920, he held the position of deputy district attorney. For ten years, Mr. Becsey was associated in the practice of law with R. Porter Ashe, who died in December, 1929.
In May, 1929, Mr. Becsey was married to Miss Barbara Cooper, of Sonoma county, California. The Coopers were pioneers of that historic county, were associates of General Vallejo, and owned one of the first large houses in Sonoma. Mr. Becsey has a daughter, Dorothy, by a former marriage.
The political affiliation of Mr. Becsey has been with the republican party. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He has been very active in the Twin Peaks Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, and he also served three successive terms as grand trustee of the Grand Parlor; he is likewise past president of the Twin Peaks Parlor. He holds membership in the Order of the Eastern Star. Professionally, he belongs to the San Francisco and the American Bar Associations.
Mr. Becsey has been a student of law throughout the more than quarter century he has been in practice. He has never been content to call his education finished or to rest on the laurels he has won. He is generally known as one of the most erudite of the local lawyers. As a citizen of San Francisco, he has also been cooperative, loyal and friendly to all affairs of civic importance, and by this attitude has created many friends for himself.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 484-486.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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