1976 at the Mid-South Festival. Beaudoin was also known for the "gemstone awards" he would give to poets. Starting in the 1950s, Beaudoin supported himself as chief clerk in criminal intelligence with the Memphis Police Department. Beaudoin considered the job a source of rich insight into human nature. In a 1981 newspaper interview Beaudoin explained, "My police job kept me close to human beings in tense situations.... From a poet's point of view, it was perhaps the most important job I could have had. When you associate with people on a day-to-day basis, there's nothing exciting about it. You don't even remember it. But when people are under pressure, you can talk to them differently and the experience becomes memorable. Where else could you learn as much about people as at a police station?" Beaudoin retired from his police job in 1980, due to blindness. Beaudoin was a charter member and officer of the Memphis Archaeological and Geological Society that was formed in 1951. The Society performed and reported on the first house excavation at Chucalissa Indian Village. The Society was heavily involved with early archaeological and geological surveys and excavations in eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, northeastern Alabama and western Tennessee. Beaudoin's papers are housed at the University of Memphis Special Collections Department. References Sources First Annual Report, Memphis Archaeological & Geological Society, Founded February 17, 1951. Memphis Archaeological & Geological Society, Publication No. 3, Memphis Museum, Memphis Tennessee February 17, 1952. Covington, Jimmie (March 26, 1995). "Poet Opened Window to Human Character in Police Job." The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), p. C11. 1913 births 1995 deaths American anthropologists 20th-century American poets Louisiana State University alumni Loyola University New Orleans alumni People from Otsego County, Michigan The New School alumni University of Memphis alumni