UC Berkeley performing arts pioneer Betty Connors, longtime director of
the center that would become Cal Performances, died of natural causes in her
Richmond, Calif. home on June 11. She was 92.
Connors led the Committee for Arts and Lectures from 1945 to 1979 and was
the center's first full-time employee.
"She had high standards of taste," said Robert Cole, current
director of Cal Performances. "If you look at the list of names that
she brought here, these were all the greatest artists of that time without
question."
Connors grew up in Great Falls, Mont. and was a student at the
University of Iowa. She visited her brother, a UC Berkeley
undergraduate at the time, in 1939 while attending the San Francisco World's
Fair, according to Christina Kellogg, a spokesperson for the center.
"She stayed on to marry Joe Connors, her brother's college roommate,
and she completed her undergraduate degree here at Cal," Kellogg said.
"In the university, she played viola, and she started to organize
concerts at local venues ... just because she loved it."
After graduating with a degree in music in 1945, Connors began working
full-time for the committee--which previously had only part-time faculty
employees--and arranged 36 music events in her first year, according to
Kellogg.
Connors, who was responsible for "unprecedented growth in the
quantity and range of events," was active in performing arts
presentation outside of campus as well, according to a press release by the
center.
In 1958, Connors joined what would become the Association of Performing
Arts Presenters and received the Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award in
1979 for her "outstanding career and exemplary service in the field of
arts administration," according to the release.
Connors worked with Jerry Willis, then presenting director at the
California Institute of Technology, in founding the Western Arts
Alliance--which helped artists arrange West Coast tours and now has more
than 550 members--in 1967, according to the release.
"(She was) important not just at UC Berkeley but across California,
across the West Coast," Kellogg said.
In 1979, Connors retired and received the Berkeley Citation, which is
awarded to those who "significantly exceed the standards of excellence
in their fields and whose contributions to UC Berkeley are manifestly above
and beyond the call of duty," according to the release.
Danny Nilles, master carpenter at the center who met Connors while
working as an electrician in Zellerbach Hall in 1976, said she was extremely
cordial to all visiting artists and guests at the theatre.
"She pretty much put the program in motion," Nilles said.
"(She) laid a real solid foundation for Cal Performances to build
upon."
__________
Ovadia, Tomer. "Former Performing Arts
Director Passes Away at 92." The Daily Californian.
Thursday, June 18, 2009, p. 2.
-----
[Return to B. Connors page]
