Betty Coven, former GRF Director from Mutual 5, has died

IN MEMORIAM

Former GRF Board Director Betty Enid Coven, who represented Mutual 5, died Oct. 16, 2022, at the age of 90. Dr. Coven was serving as president of Mutual 5 when illness forced her to resign midterm in 2018. At the time of her death, she was living with her daughter’s family in Long Beach.

She was elected to the GRF Board of Directors in 2013. She chaired the Communications Committee and was a member of the Finance, Physical Property and Security, Bus and Traffic committees.

Coven will be remembered for spearheading the Centenarian Project, which culminated in a 2014 luncheon honoring LW residents 100 years of age and older. She was interested in longevity and believed Leisure World’s active lifestyle helped people age well. She assembled a subcommittee of the Communications Committee, and the Centenarian Project was born. Subcommittee members tracked down LW’s oldest residents, interviewed them and published their stories in the LW News, and aired video profiles on SBTV-Channel 3. Of the 22 centenarians in LW at the time, 16 were feted at a special luncheon on April 10, which was the 100th day of 2014.

Coven was undaunted by challenge and did not let age, gender or public opinion deter her from her plans. Her parents barely survived a harrowing escape from Russia, which may have taught her an early lesson about the fragility of life.

Coven married twice, was widowed once, had three children, earned a doctorate in psychology (in a season of life when most people are thinking of retirement) and began a 25-year career as a therapist, was an award-winning doll maker and wrote a book that was published at age 78.

Coven was born on Dec. 13, 1931, to David and Dora Sitkin, who escaped from the pogroms of Czarist Russia.