A dedicated and well-known volunteer with Sydney Community Services (formerly Gladesville Community Aid and then subsequently Hunters Hill Ryde Community Services) 93-year-old Betty Rose Benjamin passed away quietly in April 2020.
Betty made an enormous impact on Sydney Community Services, especially through her work at the Hunters Hill Hub. During her 25 years of service, Betty was generous enough to share her incredible organisational skills, impeccable attention to detail and exemplary editorial skills with SCS.
Betty started as an administrative volunteer with Gladesville Community Aid. The Home and Community Care Program was in full swing in the late 1980s, and Betty worked tirelessly typing submissions for funding and generally supporting staff and volunteers with her expertise, conscientiousness, extraordinary accuracy and generosity of spirit.
Although Betty professed to prefer typing on a typewriter to staring at a computer screen, she was instrumental in the planning and establishing of the Moocooboola Computer Club for Seniors. That was her nature! She was adaptable and interested in the both supporting the present and securing the future.
During her time with the Moocooboola Computer Club for Seniors Betty became the Club’s Public Officer. She also served as the Public Officer of the Australian Seniors Computer Club Association. Not one to rest for long, Betty also assisted the Hunters Hill Seniors Advisory Group and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.
Born in 1927 to Ernest and Dora Benjamin, Betty was a trailblazer having built a successful career and passion for travel in a time when women were rarely afforded such opportunities.
She spent 10 years with the F. L. Wilson & Company and almost 40 years with the Horwitz Group who were perhaps best known as the publisher of MAD magazine. Betty handled the royalties paid to authors and writers and was also on the board that oversaw the publication of the Horwitz encyclopaedias.
Her loyalty and contribution to the firm’s progress was always appreciated and recognised by the Horwitz’s, who regarded her as part of their large family.
Never married, Betty was surrounded by a large circle of family and friends. She enjoyed a close relationship with her sister Estelle, brother-in-law Norman and nephews Robert and Phillip.
Betty lived with her parents at Campbell Street, Bexley until she moved to the Sir Moses Montefiore Home in Hunters Hill in 1980 with her mother. Upon their arrival, they became Blue and White volunteers at the Home, with Betty eventually becoming its Life Governor. She was later named Hunters Hill Citizen of the Year.
Betty was a very precious colleague and friend to many Sydney Community Services staff members who fondly remember her as a person who spoiled them on Mother’s Day, Easter and Christmas with gifts of chocolates and cards.
Over the years, Betty relentlessly threw herself into projects with gusto and commitment. She will be remembered for her generous donations of time and funding. She strongly believed in doing her best and leading a life to help others.
She will be missed. Vale Betty. 7th April 1927 to 8th April 2020
The contributors to this article were:
Robert McGarn – Nephew to Betty
Christine Sanderson – Gladesville Community Aid Manager
Janice Poynton – Hunters Hill Ryde Community Services Executive Officer
Branka Ivkovic – Sydney Community Services Manager
