Edward Beaumont graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in Geology. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with an M.S. in Geology and immediately went to work for the USGS. Ten years later, he left the USGS and established a consulting geological practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He worked primarily in non-metallic minerals exploration, but through the 40-plus years of his professional consulting practice, concentrated mostly on the geology and economics of coal deposits, especially in the San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico.