William Wilson (“Bill” or “Doc”) Betts, Jr., 88, died peacefully in Indiana, PA, on November 7, 2014. The son of Bernyce Anderson and William Wilson Betts, he was born in Clearfield in 1926. He had his early education at the one-room, one-teacher Evergreen School in Pike Township and at Clearfield High School. A veteran of World War II, he served in the crew of the U.S.S. Chourre (ARV-1) in the Pacific Theatre, in the liberation of the Philippines, and in the occupation of Japan.

After his graduation from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Bill earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees through graduate work at the University of Minnesota and at the Pennsylvania State University. For more than four decades he taught the English language and literature to his students — at the Consolidated School in Greenwood, Delaware, at Penn State, at Ohio University, and, for forty years, at Indiana State Teachers College and IUP.

He also served IUP as a volunteer assistant coach for the men’s basketball team for seventeen years and, for four years, as Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

Bill had many hobbies and interests. He had a great love for everything in nature and displayed a great reverence for life, which lives on in his children and grandchildren, and in his students. He spent countless hours collecting shells and sharks’ teeth in Florida, searching for arrowheads in Pennsylvania, walking grassy fields with his fun-loving English setters, watching and counting birds, fishing for lake trout on Canada’s Georgian Bay, playing tennis and bridge, and listening to music. But he was no doubt happiest when watching his sons and his grandchildren participating in their many activities related to sports, music, academics, and a love of the outdoors.

Bill delighted in humor, both giving and receiving. Over the years, he had convinced many that he had been the batboy for the Cincinnati Reds. He befriended strangers on the beach and proudly told them that earlier in the day he had swum “partway across the ocean.” And thanks to his Chihuahua punch line and the magic in picking a supposedly random number, his jokes and good-nature will long be remembered.

Bill served Indiana County on the Boards of Directors for the County Parks & Recreation Commission, the YMCA, the Visiting Nurses Association, the Campus United Methodist Ministry, Grace United Methodist Church, and the Ken Sink Chapter of Trout Unlimited. For ten years, he was a Deputy Waterways Patrolman for the Pennsylvania Fish Commission. For many years, he assisted in the WDAD radio broadcasting of sports events, and he contributed to the Indiana Gazette a column titled “Outdoor Outlook.” He was active in American Legion baseball as manager and umpire, and as a one-man grounds crew he dipped thousands of gallons of rainwater from local fields so that young kids could play ball.

Over the years, Bill published numerous articles and essays in both scholarly and nature magazines. And he authored fifteen books, including Anglo-German and American-German Crosscurrents (1957, co-editor), Lincoln and the Poets (1965), A Docketful of Wry (1970) and the enlarged reprint Slips That Pass in the Night (2001), The Evergreen Farm (2001), his chronicle of the American Revolution: Bombardier John Harris and the Rivers of the Revolution (2006), The Hatchet and the Plow, The Life and Times of Chief Cornplanter (2010), Rank and Gravity, The Life of General John Armstrong of Carlisle (2011), The Nine Lives of George Washington (2013), and Sword and Scalpel, The Life of Edward Hand of Lancaster (2014).

Bill was the recipient of many awards, including the Distinguished Scholarship Award from IUP (1970-71), the Pennsylvania Recreations and Parks Society Lay Honor Award (1975), the Distinguished Faculty Award in Classroom Teaching, Pennsylvania State Colleges and Universities (1977), election into the Sports Hall of Fame in both Indiana County and Clearfield County, and the Honorary Bellringer Award at the IUP Sports Hall of Fame Ceremony (2014).

He is listed in Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of International Biography, Directory of American Scholars, The Writers Directory, Who’s Who in the East, and Who’s Who in
American Education.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Bernyce Dufton of Clearfield, PA, and by a brother, Frederick Gregory of Minden, NV. He is survived by his devoted wife of sixty-three years, Jane Jackson, of Indiana, PA and Boynton Beach, FL, whom he married on June 29, 1951; by a son Michael and wife Kathy Condo, of Leechburg, PA; by a son Thomas and wife Cynthia (Tucker), of Home, PA; by four grandchildren: Alexandra, William, Stephanie, and Madison; by brother David, of Toronto, and wife Katherine; by sister-in-law Doris Betts of Minden, NV; and by eleven nieces and nephews.

The family greatly appreciates the skilled care of the many VNA nurses, and their attention to Bill’s needs during difficult times.

At the request of the deceased, no funeral services are being scheduled. However, a celebration to honor a life well lived will be planned for Bill’s family and friends at a future date. Memorial contributions may be made to the VNA/Hospice (850 Hospital Road, Suite 3000, Indiana, PA 15701), the Mario Lemieux Foundation (816 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219), Defenders of Wildlife (1130 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036), or to the charity of one’s choice.

The Rairigh-Bence Funeral Home of Indiana is assisting the Betts family.

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