Mrs. Howell, Coach Betty
My Mom was born and raised in Massachusetts, but you’d never have known it hearing her speak. She conquered any accent long before she had children and risked passing that painful accent along to mark us as Massholes the rest of our lives. One day in 9th grade Algebra, working an equation on an overhead projector, she said, “Let’s give X a value, and I’ll just choose a number ahhh-bitrarily…” I shot a look to one of my best friends, same seat in the row right of me, as my hand shot to the sky with a question. “Yes, Mark.” “I’m sorry, how did you choose that value? Just AHHH-bitrarily??” The entire class erupted in laughter. And so did she. Brilliant, athletic, talented, progressive and way ahead of her time, she was teacher, advocate, mentor, role model and friend to hundreds of students at Desert High School. Cheerleader sponsor. And softball coach. She helped create a girls softball league in the wake of Title IX and fought countless obstacles to get her girls off the dirt and onto a diamond at DHS. For her vision and tenacity in forcing equality for her girls, the girls varsity softball field at Edwards AFB today is named Betty Howell Field in her honor. Everything that is good about me, everything that is kind and selfless and thoughtful and loving, I learned as her son. And yes, she gave me some kickass talents in math, a subject I aced through Calculus at UCLA. Every day I am reminded how lucky I am that she was and will always be my teacher for life.
