Betty HalpernOn October 30, 2019 our amazing mother Betty Halpern died in Bodega. CA. She had been taken care of by her son Jackie for 16 years. She was 95 years old and died peacefully at home. Betty was born Brana in 1924 in Romania, where the Danube and the Black Sea meet. When Betty was 5, Pearl and Dave Weinstein, her parents and younger sister, the late Tanya Bove, fled on a ship to New York at the height of the Depression. From Brooklyn, she moved to Berkeley in 1945 and enrolled in U.C. Berkeley where she met her husband Raymond. In 1952 she took over the directorship of Berkwood School. She is remembered as a thoughtful educator who directed the first integrated private school in Alameda County.
The school still continues, now called Berkwood Hedge School. In 1968 she was hired by Sonoma State College, now University, to head up it's Early Childhood Education Department. The state used this as a model for their Multiple Subject Credential, with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education. She retired from S.S.U. in 1994. In retirement, Betty swam and played tennis daily, worked with homeless advocacy groups, volunteered in her daughter's classroom and helped organize the Berkeley Arts Festival. She also acted in George Coates' long running production, "Better Bad News".
She is survived by her son Jackie, her daughter Tova and son in law Nels Bruseth, her brother Neil Weinstein, brother in law Leonard and nephews Howard and Richard Bove of San Jose and her grandchildren, Elijah, Kaya and Ma'ayan.
The family wishes to invite friends and relatives to Betty's Celebration of Life Saturday, February 29th at the B.F.U.U. Fellowship Hall in Berkeley
1924 Cedar Street ~ 2-5
Please confirm your attendance and
Email any questions to: [email protected]
A complete obituary will be available at the memorial.