Howard Carlisle Bean was born in Washington, DC on April 9, 1923. He attended Hampden-Sydney College in 1943 and received a Bachelor’s degree with honors. He went on to attend the University of Virginia and received his LL.B. degree in 1948. He was a member of the Thomas Jefferson Society in recognition of 50 years of support and service and a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.
In 1948, he began practicing law with his grandfather, Howard Bobo Carlisle and his great-uncle, Robert M. Carlisle. Later, his son, William Smith Bean, IV joined him in 1947 in the firm of Bean and Bean. He retired after fifty-one years of practice in 1999.
Howard Carlisle Bean was a member of Spartanburg County, South Carolina the American Bar Association and served as President, Spartanburg County Bar Association in 1977. He was also a member of the American Judicature Society and the Commercial Law League. He was awarded the Claude S. Taylor Award by the Spartanburg County Bar Association for service to the County Bar.
He served in the United States Naval Air Corps as a Torpedo Bomber Pilot from 1943–1945; Member, South Carolina House of Representatives, 1951–1952; Member, Board of Commissioners of Grievances and Discipline, South Carolina Supreme Court, 1977–1980, and Chairman 1979–1980; Member of the South Carolina State Library Board, 1967–1977 and Chairman, 1967–1973. He served as Chairman of the Spartanburg County Law Library Committee for twenty-five years. After he retired, the library was named the H. Carlisle Bean Library.
He served on the Spartanburg County Library Board, 1953–1961, Chairman, 1954–1961; Member of First Presbyterian Church, where he taught Sunday School, was a former Chairman of the Board of Deacons, and was a Deacon Emeritus; Founding member of Warbirds, Inc. of South Carolina; Former member of Western Carolina Sailing Club at Lake Hartwell; Spartanburg Sertoma Club; and The Piedmont Club.
Howard Carlisle Bean is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Evert Bean, two sons, William Smith Bean, IV and Howard Carlisle Bean, Jr. and a daughter, Elizabeth Bean Burrell.