Montana Gets Final Installment Of $3 Million Inheritance LeRoy Beckman, a Great Falls, Mont., farmer, lived a simple life that would have not suggested wealth. He earmarked his estate to buy land and donate it to the state for use by hunters, and belying his thrifty lifestyle, when Beckman died in 1997 at age 88 that donation turned out to be a $3 million legacy. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has been the recipient of Beckman’s generosity, in the form of four contiguous tracts that together are called the Beckman Wildlife Management Area. The 6,500-acre WMA fulfills Beckman’s requirement. “It had to be mule-deer habitat, not elk habitat, and a river had to flow through the property,” said Jim McDermand, representing the Beckman estate. “Beckman’s generosity,” said Steve Doherty, chairman of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, “is a testament to basic decency and civic involvement.” The estate is now exhausted.