BENEVOLENT BETTY

Since Elizabeth “Betty” Dickinson spent so much of her life helping get scholarship money to those in need, it seems fitting part of her estate will continue to go to help students.

The money she left for a University of Iowa scholarship and for an afterschool program highlighted Dickinson’s benevolent nature — and brings light to a unique and remarkable life and personality of a Newton woman.

Dickinson passed away in January at age 90. She never married and never had children. She left behind a considerable estate that included money to Dollars for Scholars, an endowment for a University of Iowa scholarship in her name and $12,000 for an afterschool program that will be housed at Berg Middle School.

A life that began in Duluth, Minn., moving with her family to Newton when she was a young girl. She lived the rest of her 90 years in Newton, with the last 24 being at Park Centre, where she spent time with friends like Dori Byers.

“She was fiercely loyal to her friends and causes — both her friends and sports teams,” Byers said. “She was a good friend to me.”

Meticulous attention to detail served her well in nearly 39 years with the Maytag Foundation and with Sacred Heart Catholic Church and with the many civic and charitable community organizations she joined or led. From her 35 years as a director/officer of the Sacred Heart Cemetery Association to her work with the Newton High School Alumni Association, Dickinson showed determination and remained sharp into her later years.

Among her many accomplishments after her retirement from the Maytag Foundation in 1989 — at age 63 — was graduation from the Newton Citizen Police Academy.  She was a member of nearly every organization in Newton, at one time or another.

Margot Voshell, the Park Centre director of marketing, got to know Dickinson and her love for golf. Dickinson won the Newton Country Club Ladies Championships between 1958 and 1985, and remained active in the sport after she retired.

“She said that if someone tried to walk in front of her or her group while they were golfing, she would stop and give them a lecture about the rules,” Voshell said.

After earning her bachelor of science in commerce from the University of Iowa in 1948, Dickinson worked for the Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids for three years before coming to Newton and Maytag in 1951. She remained a staunch Iowa Hawkeye supporter her entire life.

There was another sports team she followed closely.

“Betty would score all of the Chicago Cubs games in a scorebook,” Voshell said. “She loved the Cubs. My husband (Joe Stover) and her found plenty to talk about with baseball. After the Cubs won the World Series (in early November), a small group of us went out to her grave at Sacred Heart Cemetery and celebrated.”

Dickinson was proud of her many accomplishments, but, by far, her time with the Maytag Foundation gave her the most pride. Thousands of young Newton residents interacted with her through the years as they took scholarships with them on their way to college.

None of her 12 nieces or nephews and their children live in the immediate area. Her friends in Newton and the people she helped in her many years in town are the ones around to carry on her legacy.

Dickinson would have loved to have seen the Cubs win the World Series, Voshell said.

“She almost made it,” she said. “She certainly affected a lot of people in a positive way.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com