Dr. Betty B. Garrison

July 1, 1932 - January 16, 2021

Betty passed away peacefully Saturday morning, January 16th in Berkeley, California. Betty was born at her grandparents’ home in northern Ohio, during the Great Depression, on July 1, 1932. Betty grew up in the resort town of Lakeside, Ohio on Lake Erie with her younger sister Phyllis and her parents, Reva and Philip Bernhardt. While in college, Betty’s younger brother (Dan) was born. Betty’s formative years were marked by the Great Depression and later the war. Her family had little money, struggling to make ends meet. Her father would perform odd jobs, such as fixing clocks or bicycles. Betty would recall her father earning a silver dollar for fixing a watch and saying, “as long as he had that dollar, they weren’t broke”. He never spent that dollar.

Betty attended school in Lakeside, a single school for grades one through twelve. Betty was academic by nature and loved to read. She exceled at Math and English, and said her least favorite class was “Home Economics”. She didn’t fit the mold for a girl growing up in the 30s and 40s. Instead of settling down after high school, Betty attended Bowling Green State University, earning a

B.A. in Mathematics and B.S. in education in 1954 and an M.A. in Mathematics in 1956. She earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Oregon State University in 1962 with a specialization in number theory. Betty was one of the only women in her math programs at Bowling Green and Oregon and a rare female professor after graduation. Upon graduating from Oregon with her Ph.D., Betty attained a professorship at San Diego State University where she taught until her retirement in 1996. Betty published numerous articles and spoke on topics of number theory during her years as a professor.

She met her husband, John D. (“Jack”) Garrison, at San Diego State. Jack was a physics professor, and they were married January 17, 1968. Jack had three children from a previous marriage, Jan Garrison, Eric Garrison and Jeff Garrison, who Betty loved very much. Betty and Jack had one son, John C. Garrison. Jack and Betty had four grandchildren, Jeffrey Todd (“JT”) Garrison (Jeff and Diana Garrison), and Matthew, Evan and Christopher Garrison (John and Anastasia Garrison).

Betty enjoyed traveling with Jack and working on sudoku and crossword puzzles, as well as reading and watching the news with a glass of sherry before dinner. She kept in close contact with her younger brother Dan, having weekly calls each Sunday. Betty liked routine and stuck to it – the calls with Dan were always Sunday morning and dinner was always at 6:30, there were specific days for laundry and house cleaning. This seemed to work well for her analytic nature. She wasn’t coldly analytical though, she always had a welcoming smile and was warm to her son, reading to him as a little boy for hours before bedtime, as he snuggled up against her, and she never forgot her loved one’s birthdays or to send them holiday cards. Betty moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2018 to be closer to her son and his family. She was able to spend more time with her grandsons and enjoyed weekly family dinners. Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Jack and her stepchildren (Eric, Jan and Jeff), her brother (Dan) and sister (Phyllis). She is survived by her son John C. and daughter-in-law Anastasia J. Garrison of Kensington, CA and daughter-in-law Diana S. Garrison (Jeff) of Santee, CA; her four grandsons, J.T. (Ashley), Evan James, Matthew Jack and Christopher Daniel; and two great grandsons Andrew Lewis and Parker Garrison (J.T. and Ashley).

Due to restrictions on social gatherings, a virtual celebration of life will be held in the next few weeks. Please reach out to the family if you would like to be included.