Time at Bowling Green State University

Betty was born in November of 1913 near Fremont, Ohio. After her mother died when she was eight years old, her father moved them to her grandmother’s farm. There, she was mostly raised by her aunts and learned hard labor through helping with chores on the farm. After high school, Betty worked a factory job for two years to pay for college. At this point her father got sick and told her that if she took commercial courses, he would pay for one year of her college education. Betty majored in Commercial Education, though her passion was the arts. At the end of her first year, Betty saved a girl from drowning at a local quarry. In turn the university gave her a job for the following year, allowing her to finish her college education. According one of her nieces, early on Betty realized that college counselors at this time had narrow parameters for women and pushed them in directions of teaching and administration, though Betty paved her own path. Betty was a part of many different campus organizations such as the Women’s Athletic Association, Skol Sorority, Sigma Tau Delta, the debate team, Pi Kappa Delta, and women’s hockey. She graduated from B.G.S.U. in 1937 with a Bachelor of Science in Education. 

Betty continued to have many connections to B.G.S.U. after she graduated. She was part of the Alumni Association for most of her life served as its president in 1952. Betty was always happy to return and see old friends; it gave her enthusiasm for her daily work. Though, B.G.S.U. was not exempt from her fight against discrimination in higher education. In the decades before Title IX was passed, universities would turn away female applicants with high scores in order to accept a larger percentage of men. They wanted to invest in male attendees because they believed men would hold more positions of power in prestigious careers. One of Betty's goals was to prove this idea to be false and assist in outlawing discrimination based on gender.