A Lifetime of
Dedication to UC's Arts
By Barbara Erickson
THE INDEPENDENT & GAZETTE
1980
When Betty Connors won the Berkeley Citation last month she became an equal
of Albert Einstein, Edward Kennedy, Satyajit Ray, Josephine Miles and the
others who have been honored in this way. In her case, the citation marked
years of dedicated service to the Committee of Arts and Lectures at UC
Berkeley
Mrs. Connors retired from CAL at the end of the year to sustained applause
from the academic and performing arts community. She was the first person
hired for the committee and expanded its operation from a one-person affair to
a multi-million dollar enterprise.
The Berkeley Citation was only one award recognizing Mrs. Connors'
achievements. She received awards from the Association of College, University
and Community Arts Administrators and the International Society of Performing
Arts Administrators at their conferences in New York last month and she won
the California Association of Dance Companies' Award.
Mrs. Connors was a senior at UC Berkeley in 1945 when she was hired to work
on the committee. In the following years she saw first Hertz Hall and then
Zellerbach Auditorium added to the campus performing space.
These new sites were able to accommodate the expanding programs offered by
CAL in music, dance, theatre, film and lectures, all of which, according to
CAL chairman Travis Bogard were the results of Mrs. Connors' dedication and
effort.
She not only signed up new performers and expanded the program, she became
hostess to traveling artists who came through Berkeley and corresponded with
many of them, including Issac Stern, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lili Kraus, Marcel
Marceau, Andre Segovia, Louis Armstrong, and Robert Lowell.
The CAL staff now includes 70 persons, and CAL is the largest presenter of
arts events in Northern California and the largest presenter of dance events
in the country. Last year, 324,008 persons attended CAL events.
When Mrs. Connors came to California in 1940 she was ill with asthma and in
need of a job. She found one, stuck with it, and contributed, in the course of
34 years with the committee, to the cultural enrichment of the entire state.
Now she is ready for relaxation. The first thing she plans to do, she said,
is to "collapse." Then she hopes to travel to American cities and
live in each for several months.
But she is not planning to leave for good. She said she would rent out her
home, and eventually, as all her friends hope, return to Berkeley.
__________
Erickson, Barbara. "A Lifetime of
Dedication to UC's Arts." The Independent & Gazette.
Tues, January 8, 1980, p. 17.
-----
[Return to B. Connors page]
