BETTY BARKER

The Betty Barker Sculpture Garden
Betty Barker has been a driving force in the development of the Palm Desert Campus, serving as co-chair of the capital campaign since its inception.  In 2001, the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, major benefactors of the campus, requested that Betty be honored with a sculpture garden in her name.  According to their wishes, the Betty Barker Sculpture Garden will be dedicated on November 20, 2004.

Betty, a native of Philadelphia, PA, has been an active fund raiser in the desert since her so-called retirement in 1997.   She spent most of her adult life in Chicago and New York where she had a thirty-five year professional career in Industrial Design and raised her two sons all at a time when women were not obvious in the workplace.  Other accomplishments include founding the Chicago Bulls Basketball Team, which she owned for ten years, and serving as the "Little Old Gray-Haired Lady" in Clairol commercials for 18 years, although she was only 40 years old when she started her "glamour" career.