Bette A Polkinghorn, Ph D died on January 9th 2015 at age 77. Daughter of Tom and Lucile Hall, she was a lifelong resident of Sacramento until 2009 when illness forced her to move near family. Bette held a BA from Stanford, an MA from Sacramento State and a PhD from UC Davis, and studied at UC Berkeley, Yale, and the London School of Economics. She was a Professor of Economics at Sacramento State for 39 years.
A key topic of her life’s work was economic measures of the relative value of work by gender. Bette was an early visionary of the untapped the human and natural resources of Africa, seeing vast beauty and potential. She believed the teaching of economics was a vehicle to improve lives in undeveloped countries, improve governance, reduce corruption, and promote democracy, and did so as both a Fulbright Scholar and for USAID in Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. A worldwide traveler, Bette traveled extensively in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Bette is survived by her son, Gordon Hatcher of Sharon Massachusetts, his wife Elizabeth, and
grandsons Alexander and Benjamin.
A funeral Service will be held at Eastlawn Memorial Park, 4300 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento at 11 am on Friday. IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, a donation may be made to Weave,1900 K St Sacramento or Rosie’s Place, 889 Harrison Ave, Boston.