Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/03/2011 12:23 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 11/03/2011 07:54 PM
Expires: 01/01/2016 12:00 AM
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Memorial Services for Betty Ann Prescott Planned for This Sunday at Big Trees State Park
Calaveras Big Trees State Park, CA...A memorial service for Betty Ann Prescott, a community leader in the Ebbetts Pass area for almost 50 years, will be held at Jack Knight Hall in the state park at 1:30 p.m. Sunday Nov. 6. She was a major contributor to volunteer efforts at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, and a pioneer in professional, educational, and volunteer areas, plus an early promoter of winter sports in the Bear Valley area. Ms. Prescott served for several years as a member of the board of directors of Calaveras Big Trees Association. Just before her death she completed a project to build an engineering scale model of the new Visitor Center at the state park, a project she helped raise money to build.....
As a docent since 1983 she led hikes in the South Grove, helped chart and map the giant sequoia trees, helped develop the association web site and drew working plans for a new interpretive center at the park.
In a biography she provided before her death, she mentioned several things she had done in her long and productive lifetime of which she was obviously proud:
-- She graduated at Mills College, taught at Edison High School, took time off to raise three sons, earned a masters degree at U.O.P, and then taught Mechanical Engineering Technology for 20 years at San Joaquin Delta College. She was a member of numerous engineering organizations, and was the first woman representative on the State Engineering Liaison Committee.
-She and her husband built a cabin, which she designed, in Bear Valley in 1966, one year before the ski resort opened. She became a charter member and then first woman president of the Bear Valley Ski Club, and 10 years later came in second in the nation in NASTAR downhill ski race for women over 50. She also served on the Alpine County Grand Jury, and the Bear Valley Association board.
- In 1973 she and her husband took a sabbatical and camped across Europe with two sons, visiting universities and plants to study the adaptation to metrics. She wrote two books, used as college texts, as a result of her trip.
- When she retired from teaching in 1983 she designed a new home in Big Trees Village, and moved permanently to Calaveras county. She and her husband ran a local business providing solar calculations and engineering for seven years.
- She was active for decades in the American Association of University Women, and the local chapter of P.E.O., serving both organizations as president.
- She helped organize the Calaveras PC Users Group, also serving as president, and helped organize the East Calaveras Democrats and served as treasurer.
- Prescott was an active volunteer at Independence Hall in White Pines, and designed the storage warehouse used for furniture sales that support that organization.
She had been in ill health in recent months, but remained active up until the week before her death.
Her husband Richard preceded her in death in 1995.
She is survived by sons Paul of Denair, Guy of Citrus Heights, and Tom of London, England; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be sent to the Calaveras Big Trees Association, AAUW, P.E.O., Unitarian-Universalist Church of Sonora, or the American Cancer Society.
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