Betty Joy (Guttmann) Turner died of pancreatic cancer at the Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst on December 10, 2021. 

Born in Chicago, Betty grew up in Miami. Her childhood was difficult: her disabled mother died when Betty was 11, leaving her with a harsh, domineering, and callous father. Fortunately she had her older brother, Allen, to lean upon. Betty and Allen remained each others’ best friends for the rest of her life. 

Against her father’s wishes–and via some subterfuge–Betty followed Allen to the University of Florida. There she established the pattern that was evident for the rest of her life. On the one hand, as a freshman she set the curve by getting the highest score on the final for the required science course. On the other hand, she nearly flunked out due to an over-achieving social life. She had to alternate between taking classes and working, but nonetheless earned her degree and left her old life behind her. 

Once more Betty followed Allen, this time to Amherst, where she began her thirty-year teaching career. In the 1960s she had various adventures–she taught for the U.S. Army in Germany, was married, had a son, lived all over the country, and was divorced–but she always gravitated back to Amherst. She came back for good in 1969, to be close to her brother and to raise her son Jonathan in the best possible environment, vowing never to leave again. She never did. 

Betty taught in Wildwood Elementary School from the day it opened until the day she retired–and afterwards, as a substitute. During that time she made countless friends and influenced countless students. For many years it was hard for her to walk around Amherst without running into a student and/or a parent whom she knew. During the summer vacation Betty made it a point to travel, visit museums, and explore. She loved reading, cats, Joe’s Cafe in Northampton, Florida (during the winter), dirty jokes, farm stands, the Granby condominium she bought in the late 1980s, her wonderful neighbors, restaurants, Thanksgiving, the Weston Playhouse theater in Vermont, travel tours, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels, Columbo, McCray’s Country Creamery ice cream, and most of all her family. For many years she made it a rule to have at least one thing to do on her calendar every day. 

Betty is survived by her son, Jonathan, and her daughter-in-law, Robin Holly; her brother, Professor Allen Guttmann, and her sister-in-law, Professor Doris Bargen; her niece, Erika Guttmann-Bond; her nephew, Hans Guttmann; and the many hundreds of students who passed through her hands. A memorial service is planned at the Unitarian Meetinghouse in Amherst, but it will be delayed until the current Covid wave has subsided. Please contact jonathan.a.turner@comcast.net if you would like to be notified once the plans are set. 

In lieu of flowers or gifts, please consider a donation to the Dakin Humane Society animal shelter in Leverett–or, if you can, adopt an animal in Betty’s name. Memorial guestbook at www.douglassfuneral.com