William James Beal (1833-1924), was an American botanist. He attended the University of Michigan, which gave him an A. B. degree in 1859 and an A. M. degree in 1862; he also received an S. B. degree from Harvard University, 1865, an M. S. degree from the University of Chicago, 1875, and a number of honorary degrees. He served as professor of botany at the University of Chicago in 1868-70, then went on to Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University), where he was a professor of botany (1871-1910), and curator of the museum (1882- 1903). He also served as director of the state Forestry Commission (1889-1892). Beal was the founder of MSU's W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the oldest continuously operated botanical garden in the United States. He was one of the pioneers in the development of hybrid corn. In 1887, he and Professor Rolla C. Carpenter created "Collegeville", the first neighbourhood in what later became East Lansing. He was the author of The New Botany (1881), Grasses of North America (1886), Seed Dispersal (1898) and History of Michigan Agricultural College (1913).