Betsy Kraus Dawson

Annapolis attorney served as executive director of the Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission for 20 years

Betsy Kraus Dawson, an Annapolis attorney who served for 20 years as the executive director of the Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission, died of cancer Wednesday at her Annapolis home. She was 65. “Betsy was a born ethicist who was passionate when it came to the subject of ethics and was devoted to strengthening public ethics. I was always a strong supporter of hers,” said former state Sen. Julian L. “Jack” Lapides, who had been a member of the state Ethics Commission for 13 years.

“She was an outstanding member of the commission and really worked hard for positive change in Anne Arundel County politics,” Mr. Lapides said. “Betsy was a pit bull. She was unafraid of fighting anyone if she was right.”

Emerson Davis, chairman of the Ethics Commission, called Ms. Dawson its “heart and soul.”

“I can honestly say no one worked harder to retain ethical integrity in Anne Arundel County than Betsy,” he said.

The daughter of Bertram S. Kraus, an anthropologist and college professor, and Dorothy Kraus, a homemaker who also worked as a secretary and in real estate, Betsy Kraus was born in Tucson, Ariz.

She spent parts of her childhood in Seattle, where her father worked at the University of Washington, and later in Pittsburgh, when Dr. Kraus took a job as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and then the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating from Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, she studied for a year at George Washington University and completed her sophomore year at the American University of Paris.

She then entered the University of Pittsburgh, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1973, then obtained a law degree in 1976 from the Case-Western Reserve School of Law

Ms. Dawson first came to Annapolis to work at her sister’s public relations firm. After law school, she took a job clerking for Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge James Wray. It was there that she met her future husband, Ronald G. Dawson, who was a clerk for Circuit Judge Morris Turk.

The couple married in 1978 and had four children. After working in the Anne Arundel County Office of Law, Ms. Dawson spent 13 years focused on raising her kids.

Nan Jarashow, a longtime friend and neighbor, remembered the camaraderie the two shared as mothers who “enjoyed being dinosaurs at a time when there were just starting to be not too many moms hanging around.”

In her role as executive director of the county Ethics Commission — which rules on public ethics matters — Ms. Dawson advised the body’s seven appointed members, supervised ethics training for county employees and maintained a list of registered lobbyists in the county.

Though she frequently interacted with high-powered politicians and lobbyists, she preferred to stay out of the spotlight, acting instead as a behind-the-scenes advocate for good government.

“I don’t think she ever wanted to be the focal point,” Mr. Davis said. “She just wanted to do what she felt was right on behalf of Anne Arundel County.”

Anne Dawson, a doctoral candidate at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, said her mother held officials accountable to her favorite quote: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Ms. Jarashow said Ms. Dawson had “a great sense of humor and a warmth that really drew people in and put them at their ease.” In her free time, Ms. Dawson enjoyed crabbing — an activity she shared most Sunday mornings with her family. The ritual was often followed by a Sunday evening crab feast.

She was also a connoisseur of good tequila, said sister Kathy Sitte of Edgewater, and had a collection of shot glasses that outgrew the cabinet where they were stored.

Ms. Dawson was active in the community, singing in the Annapolis Chorale and helping raise money for a playground at thenGermantown Elementary School in Annapolis.

In the late 1980s, she led a successful campaign to stop the county from selling Quiet Waters Farm in Annapolis to developers. The land is now Quiet Waters Park.

Anne Arundel County officials praised Dawson’s dedication to the county.

County spokesman Owen McEvoy called her “a devoted public servant dedicated to ethical and open government.”

“Betsy helped really create the framework for a strong ethics commission in the county,” said former County Executive Janet Owens, a Democrat who served from 1998 to 2006.

Though they sometimes disagreed, Ms. Dawson “was totally dedicated and committed to making sure that things were done properly at the local level,” Ms. Owens said.

County Councilman Chris Trumbauer, an Annapolis Democrat, said Ms. Dawson’s institutional knowledge was important to guide a commission that sees frequent turnover.

“I hope that her legacy is continued,” he said. Services are private. In addition to her daughter and sister, Ms. Dawson is survived by her husband, an Annapolis lawyer; two sons, Jack Dawson and Jeffrey Dawson, both of Annapolis; another daughter, Katherine Dawson of San Jose, Calif.; a granddaughter; and several nieces and nephews. Betsy Kraus Dawson helped preserve the public land that became Quiet Waters Park.