David Betts’ father has never left his side. Although his physical body is no longer on Earth, his memory, his life’s lessons, and his unconditional love, are still very much alive.
Betts clearly remembers his childhood years as a baseball catcher, the same position his late father, Warren R. Betts, once played. The senior Betts always stood by the backstop, never telling his son what play to make, but always reminding him to assess the game at hand.
Then Betts came to UC Riverside and decided to major in theatre. His father wasn’t too convinced how his son’s degree choice would translate into a career but trusted he was learning valuable skills — including welding and construction skills — that would set Betts onto a successful path.
In honor of his late father, Betts, his wife Anne Mundell, and his mother, Gloria Betts Hauser, are joining forces to establish the Warren R. Betts Endowment Fund and the Warren R. Betts Memorial Fund. This $1 million commitment will support College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS) students participating in the UC Washington Center internship program, better known as UCDC. Although UCDC was established more than three decades ago, the Warren R. Betts Endowment Fund was created as a pilot program to provide financial assistance for up to 16 arts and humanities majors a year. The first student, Zachary Hanson, participated in UCDC in August and two more followed this fall, Jacqueline Villanueva Nava and Abraham Garcia.
The fund’s primary focus is to remove financial barriers CHASS students might face as they take on this DC-based residential internship program. The award’s minimum amount is $2,500, one of the most generous UCDC awards at UCR, said Eveleen Samayoa, assistant dean of development for CHASS. The fund is also the first at UCR to specifically support arts and humanities internships at UCDC, Samayoa said.
“My mom and dad instilled the importance of an education,” said Betts, who graduated with a bachelor’s in theatre in 1990 and currently serves as a member of the UCR Foundation Board of Trustees member. “Now I want to make sure we’re supporting students with experiences that they can build from.”
Betts now leads teams across the United States as a public health transformation leader for Deloitte Consulting, a global professional services organization that provides audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services for 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies. People are often curious about his theatre degree and inquire how it benefited his career. The answer is simple, he said.
“I talk to clients all the time, tell stories. It takes the ability to affectively show them what their future can look like, to help organizations change, show them the vision and that there’s a way forward,” said Betts, who amid the COVID-19 pandemic was charged with helping a state client rollout the COVID vaccine. “We had to get things done, just like in theatre… when things need to get done, you figure out how to work in a team, and against a deadline you get that project on that stage when the curtain rolls up. For the vaccine rollout, every day the curtain went up… we had to figure out how to engage teams, engage people and keep them engaged for months. It was opening night every day.”
Betts picked up this work ethic from theatre folks such as the former technical director Alan A. Call, production manager Marc Longlois, and professor emeritus Eric Barr. Betts also carries the dedication from his parents. His mom was a hairstylist and his father started off as a technician with the telephone company GTE. The senior Betts eventually became an engineer without a college degree and at one point became one of the key designers of the United States’ Government Emergency Telecommunications Systems, a White House-directed emergency telephone service provided and managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Much like himself and his parents, Betts wants UCR students to find opportunities to build a career they love.
“We are grateful for the very personal commitment to student opportunity shown by David, his family members, and his employer, Deloitte,” said Daryle Williams, CHASS dean. “Their generous financial support honors a father’s love for a child afforded the freedom to roam and to learn. New Highlander generations and their families now take that freedom to Washington, D.C., where our student awardees make their mark in the nation’s capital.”
The award is intended to provide students with the opportunity to use the concepts and skills learned through the arts and humanities in a multitude of career paths, including those that may not have a direct arts or humanities focus, Betts said.
“As much traveling as my father did, I remember him always being present at my baseball games, sometimes showing up still wearing a suite,” Betts recalled. “When I stood behind the home plate, dad was behind the backstop reminding me what the situation was. And that is always how I lead now. It’s not my job to tell my team what to do, but certainly make them aware. I think until now, my father has always been there behind the backstop for me.”
