Ex-council member focused on women, health
‘She was a very strong, very focused woman,’ Sheri Gallo says.
Betty Himmelblau, a former City Council member who was known for her work on health care and helped launch the Commission for Women and the Austin Arts Commission, died last week. She was 92.
Himmelblau was first elected to the council in 1975, after she had served on the city’s Planning Commission. She helped establish the Medical Access Program, which enables uninsured and low-income residents of Travis County to get health care from clinics and doctors who see MAP patients.
“Betty was a really sweet person,” said former political consultant William “Peck” Young. “By the standards of the time, she was older and more conservative, but she was open to all kinds of things and new ideas.”
Though she was among the council’s first female members, Himmelblau wasn’t a feminist activist, Young said, but in her own way made women’s advancement a big priority, including starting the
city’s fifirst Commission for Women.
“She ... thought women’s role was not given its due or paid attention to,” Young said.
Raised in Chicago, Himmelblau served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, helping to rehabilitate wounded veterans. She moved to Austin in 1957 after her husband got a job teaching chemical engineering at the University of Texas. She served six years on the council, deciding not to run for re-election in 1981.
Current City Council Member Sheri Gallo, who represents West Austin, said she knew Himmelblau as a child, because she was friends with Himmelblau’s daughter. “She was a very strong, very focused woman, and everything she would take on she would do 150 percent,” Gallo said.
Gallo’s offiffice said there are plans to offffffffffffer a city proclamation later this month to recognize Himmelblau’s life and service on the council. Besides her work on the council, Himmelblau served on various city and statewide boards.