Living & Giving continued

John Ebersole added that his own life view is similar to Jean’s, and believes that education is essential to meeting the multiple challenges individuals and societies are facing in the 21st century. It underscores the role of Excelsior’s general education requirements, which according to John, “broaden and deepen the whole person toward becoming a thoughtful, active citizen.” One of the keys to global citizenship is to develop frameworks for sorting out what’s happening around us — to reflect on what makes us human. It is these very values that underlie the decision for John and Connie to create the scholarship.

The Jean Bovard Cramer Scholarship supports the notion that you can add to your education at any age and that the pursuit of a liberal arts degree will enhance many aspects of your life.

Both John and Connie received degrees as adult learners. Connie notes, “My own master’s degree in liberal arts gave me the skills and insights that translate across every area of my life. To learn to think critically and write clearly, to remain open and understand your ideas within the context of multiple points of view, to reflect on timeless questions found in literature from every culture and continent, are all fruits of a liberal arts education.”

Just as Jean Cramer’s life fosters a love of learning and an appreciation for its transformative possibilities, John and Connie hope this fund will encourage women who have the same sparkle as Connie’s mother to enhance their lives and the lives of others.

By choosing to use a philanthropic vehicle to honor Jean Cramer, John and Connie also chose a model so appropriate to recognizing Jean. “To paraphrase Claire Guadiani, an expert in the history and economics of philanthropy, ‘we are not philanthropic because we are rich. We are rich because we are philanthropic.’ Philanthropy translates hope and ideas into real innovation and change — change that impacts society over the long term,” says Connie. “Giving is tough when the economy is tough, but that’s when it’s most impor- tant. John and I hope this gift will allow another woman’s future to be furthered and her dreams to be achieved.”

Inspiring a Love of Learning

Born in Kansas in the early 1920s, Betty Jean Bovard Cramer grew up in Montana and Wyoming. After completing high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1939, she attended the Colorado Women’s College in Denver, where she wrote and produced musicals and was a columnist for the college newspaper. She went on to the University of Nebraska, where she graduated in 1943 with a degree in journalism.

In her year as a Wyoming high school teacher, Jean learned that there was no school song — and so she wrote one! They still use it today.

In 1944 she worked briefly for a newspaper in Cheyenne, Wyoming. When she went to the Cheyenne Airport to sell advertising she was spotted by a recruiter for Inland Airlines, who asked if she wanted to be a stewardess. Appealing to her sense of curiosity, freedom, and love of people, she said, “Yes!”

From 1944–46 she flew for Inland Airlines, which was acquired by Western Airlines, serving as Western’s “Chief Stewardess” for the Inland Division based in Denver. She was a stewardess on the first commercial flight carrying passengers over the Rocky Mountains, from Denver to Salt Lake City. Up until that time, aircraft had only taken cargo and mail over the Rockies.

Jean married Robert Cramer in 1946 in Denver, Colorado. It was only after she was married that she first saw the Pacific Ocean! While she and the family traveled extensively, she would spend the rest of her life in California, which is where Connie and her siblings were born and raised. In many ways, however, Jean’s heart and soul belonged to the Midwest, especially the Rocky Mountains. Jean is now 89 years old and lives in Walnut Creek, California.