Pictured: Ms. Ling, courtesy of ʻAiea Elementary School, 1983.
By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director
During her lifetime, Bette Mae Ling, a retired kindergarten teacher, didn’t seek public recognition or even private thanks for a gift she made to fund cancer research. Instead, after her death the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation learned that, quietly, Ling had provided a monetary gift to help the work of UH Mānoa’s most promising researchers to reach a little farther.
She named the endowment after her parents, mother Mrs. Alice Chun Beams of Hilo and her step-father, Blond Hanley Beams, a retired Navy man. The Mrs. Alice Chun Beams and Blond Hanley Beams Endowed Professorships in Cancer Research at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). The professorships last three years, during which the selected professors, the researchers will receive $20,000, for a total of $60,000 each.
About Ms. Ling
Bette Mae Ling attended meetings of the Associated Chinese University Women (ACUW) during her lifetime. Former ACUW President Gretchen Jong was acquainted with her, and recalls that she “She was a wonderful people person and had many dozens of orchid plants and several fruit trees in her yard.”
Bette Mae Ling taught kindergarten for three decades at ʻAiea Elementary School, not far from her childhood home. She attended the St. Andrews Priory and Adelphi University in New York. She passed away at the age of 87 in January 2014. JABSOM was among several organizations Ling provided donations for in her will.
