Feature. . .
Betty Larkins Memorial
August 15, 1920 - September 19, 2000

Betty Larkins had a career of service in Oregon financial aid and received the WASFAA Meritorious Service Award in 1993. This fall, at the age of 80, Betty passed away.

When I met Betty, she was 68 and I was a freshman at Linfield College starting out as a work-study student in the Financial Aid Office. Betty had come back from retirement, again, to help out in the office. I have clear impressions in my mind of Betty's character and personality. Working along side her impacted my development for the good. Betty had a distinct vitality and youthfulness; she did not seem wearied by the years or the trials. She also had a kindness about her that was very real and genuine, but she was by no means a wallflower! She was a no-nonsense woman of strength and courage. I am thankful to Jennifer Satalino and Julie Yeager Arthur for suggesting that a tribute to Betty be included in this WASFAA newsletter. The very act is a credit to Betty and an indication of the positive impact she had on those who were fortunate enough to know her.

The following collection of remembrances are from some of those in financial aid who knew Betty Larkins and are offered here as a celebration of her life. Contributions in memory of Betty may be sent to Linfield College, 900 SE Baker Street, McMinnville, OR 97128.

Becky Cady, WASFAA Newsletter Co-Editor
***************

Julie Yeager Arthur, Institutional Improvement Specialist
U.S. Department of Education,
Seattle Case Management Team

I consider Betty my financial aid mentor. I had worked in financial aid for only one year, and was only one year out of college, when Pacific University hired Betty to be my boss.

When Betty started as Director of Financial Aid at Pacific University, she told me something I have always tried to live by as I changed jobs: "when you are new, go into the job with an open mind and learn from the staff before you start making changes. Don't change things right off the bat unless regulations or laws are being flaunted. Let everyone get to know you and earn their respect." Betty followed this advice herself and soon was well respected by everyone at Pacific. She was a great teacher who always explained the reasons why when she taught you new policies and procedures. The students always came first for her, but she didn't let anyone pull the wool over her eyes.

I also remember how much fun Betty had at financial aid conferences. Her favorite song was "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," and when that song was played, she hit the dance floor and made all of us "youngsters" look like senior citizens.

I kept in touch with Betty over the years. She went through some very tough times-when her husband, Mel, passed away, when her son passed away-but she always had the ability to look ahead and be hopeful. The last time I talked with her, she told me about some of her hard times, but she laughed and said she was making the best of things. Her granddaughter, Nicky, was still taking her down to the coast to the casinos so she could gamble (another of her favorite pastimes).

I will miss Betty-she was a great mentor and a good friend. She was a financial aid administrator of the old school-she started with the programs from the very beginning- she worked hard, she played hard, and she knew the programs inside and out. I wish more financial aid folks had the opportunity to work with Betty Larkins.

Dan Preston, Director of Financial Aid
Linfield College

Betty brought an energy and a high level of caring to her work at Linfield. I appreciated greatly that her single focus was on helping people, on helping students. She wanted to help students, without delay. She knew that students needing her help were not just struggling financially, but that the financial struggles took an emotional toll as well. She taught me that the longer a student waits for an answer, the harder it is on the student. She would ask to sit down and talk about a student and always tell me "let's do it now, there's a student out there waiting for us to figure this out!" As much as anyone I've ever worked with, Betty reminded me constantly that behind all the rules, the laws, and the regulations, there was a person, a human being behind the FAFSA, counting on us to do whatever we could to help.

Bob Peters, Director of Financial Aid
Brooks Institute of Photography

I was hired as the Student Employment Coordinator at Linfield the week of our nation's bicentennial, when the office staff was three-Betty, Bart Howard, and me. The position coordinated CWS and on-campus employment, but filled in everywhere else when needed. That was back in the days when you had to use carbon paper in the FISL applications, you had to burst the BEOG Student Eligibility Reports, validation was just a glimmer in someone's eye, and Jimmy Carter hadn't been elected yet to support the Middle Income Student Assistance Act. Betty and Bart taught me how to do need analysis calculations by hand-with a pencil and an extra-large eraser. Everything was manual back then, but somehow we managed. Betty instilled in me the importance of attention to detail, ethics and consistency, and student advocacy. Today, 24 years later, I am still working as a financial aid professional.

Dana Young, Dean of Student and Enrollment Services
Blue Mountain Community College

I met Betty through Jennifer Satalino after Betty retired from Linfield but was still working there part time. I never met a woman with more "spunk" and energy for life. Betty always had positive things to say about others and kept her sense of humor no matter what the daily pressure was. I feel as though I was blessed with becoming acquainted with Betty and I would just like to say, "Betty, you were a first class act."

Anastacia Dillon, Associate Director of Student Financial Services
Lewis & Clark College

Betty was a friend and a mentor. She not only taught me the rules and regs of financial aid but how to compassionately implement them. She showed great strength of character even as her physical strength was failing. She was a lady well ahead of her time in a great many respects and I will always treasure the time I was able to spend with her.

Jennifer Satalino, Director of Enrollment Services
Pacific Northwest College of Art

My husband, Jeff, happened to be in my office when Steve Macy called to tell me that Betty wanted me to speak at her funeral. When I got off the phone, I was still in shock, and trying to figure out why Betty wanted me to speak, and what she wanted me to say.

Jeff reminded me of one of our trips to see Betty in McMinnville. We'd gone to Denny's, and after the waitress had taken our order, Betty looked at me and said, "You know, when I die, you're going to speak at my funeral. Now, what are you going to say?" Betty was never one to beat around the bush. I responded that I had quite a bit of time to decide what I would say. "Well", she said, "it had better be good!"

Betty, I hope this is good enough!

I've only known Betty since 1992, when I started working in the Financial Aid Office at Linfield, so Betty obviously didn't expect me to give an historical retrospective. She'd requested that Baruti, her favorite former student, speak, so she obviously hoped that he would cover what a fabulous aid administrator she was, and how much of a difference she made in the life of her students.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Betty wanted me to express how much she meant to me, why I loved and respected her so much, and how I've come to owe so much of my current happiness to Betty Larkins.

Betty was a pioneer. Not in the sense of taking the wagon train over to Oregon (especially since she was born in the Northwest!), but in the sense of being on the forefront of a huge social change. Betty grew up in a big family on a farm in an era when women became wives and mothers. Betty became a wife and a very caring (and doting) mother and grandmother, but she was also something else. She was one of the first working mothers in an era before it was accepted or encouraged. And Betty made it all look easy.

Betty started working in financial aid shortly after the Great Society program was born. She never let me forget that her first office was in a broom closet! While Betty was sorting through the rules and regulations of the new programs (in an era before Big Government and lots of bureaucrats to help us) she was also mothering her two sons and supporting their friends. Betty may have been an important person on campus, helping thousands of students afford a college education, but she was an even more important person at home. Betty took time to get involved in her boys' lives.

I remember one morning we were having a conversation about how hard it was to get to work on time. Betty remembered back to the days where she would cook a hot breakfast for the boys, then speed out the door to work. One morning, she'd been at work for hours before she realized that she still had her apron on. Although she was mortified at the time, she laughed about it with me, and shook her head, remembering how challenging and rewarding those days were. The apron story was one of Betty's favorites, and she repeated it time and again.

Betty was very dedicated to her work, and as her family grew up and left home, she threw herself into her career. Betty was one of the first female financial aid directors in the state of Oregon at a time when the profession was dominated by men.

In 1993, Betty was awarded a Meritorious Service Award by the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. The award was presented at the annual conference, held in Portland that year. As we often did at conferences, Betty and I shared a room. She was very nervous and excited about receiving the award, which was presented to her at a breakfast meeting. What made her the happiest, however, wasn't the award, but the fact that her boys and her granddaughter Nikki were able to drive up from Pacific City in order to watch her receive the plaque. She wanted Nikki to be proud of her and to know that each of us has it within us to excel at something we truly love. And Betty truly loved financial aid. I found out months after the ceremony that Betty's award was voted on with absolutely no discussion, as it was a unanimous decision from the get go.

When I became pregnant with my daughter, Betty and I had many conversations about how my life would change. I had lost my mother when I was 19, and Betty wanted to be sure that someone gave me good advice; she was concerned that I didn't know what I was doing. Over and over again, Betty would tell me that although I would lose myself for the first few years, that I would do nothing in my life even half as rewarding as raising a child. So far, she's been correct, and I regret that I will no longer be able to ask her for advice. Betty is one of the few people who could give me a long-term perspective on what it's like to work and raise a family.

Betty would always be amazed that folks wanted to help her. More times than not, her phone conversations would start "You won't believe who is driving me to the doctor's (or cleaning my house or mowing my lawn or driving me to the lottery office in Salem)… " As smart as Betty was, she didn't understand what a special person she was, and how, after giving to others her whole life, it was simply her time to receive.

I think that what I'll miss the most about Betty, aside from the great advice is her graciousness, her generosity, her straightforwardness, her optimism, and her opinions. Time and again, Life handed Betty a series of blows, and each time she bounced back, feistier than ever, eager to experience what lay just around the corner. And although I'll miss her very, very much, I'm happy when I think about what waits for her around this latest corner.

So I hope I've conveyed to you just a small part of what made Betty so special to me, and I hope that I can continue to learn from Betty's experiences and stories. But mostly, I hope that this was what Betty had in mind when she told me "it had better be good!"

Betty, I hope this was good enough! If not, I'm sure you'll let me know!

Shari Wood,
Oregon Student Assistance Commission

MY MEMORIES OF BETTY LARKINS
Caring heart
Gentle nature
Devotion to the students she served
Knowledge and efficiency in her work
Success
Years of OASFAA conferences
A smile on her face and in her voice
Warm hugs whenever needed
Laughter
Her "first" retirement party at OASFAA
where she danced the night away!
Back to work after retirement.
Friendship
A life well lived!