Women - Hunterdon County, New Jersey

BETTY M. ANDERSON
After obtaining both a bachelor’s and a
master’s degree, Betty Anderson continued
during her summers to study more about
alcoholism. The subject was important to her and
was to become her life work and devotion.
As founder of the Hunterdon County Council
on Alcoholism, Betty Anderson literally worked
out of the trunk of her car where she stored her
film projector. Those were the days, in the early
70's, when a high-level meeting on alcoholism
would gather only enough people to fit around a
table.
Betty's devotion to the cause of alcohol and
drug abuse saw the programs expand not only in
Hunterdon but throughout the state. Where once
she had to battle for funding, now there is awareness that has loosened the private and
public pocketbooks. Monies now go to educate school children, prisoners, and families
of substance abusers.
Because of her cause, the Hunterdon Medical Center opened its Center for Drug
and Alcohol Abuse and chose Betty to direct the facility.
Recognizing her years of work and reputation, Betty was named “1988 Woman of
the Year” by the New Jersey Task Force on Women and Alcoholism.
Although this former Sergeantsville resident is now retired to Sarasota, FL, Betty's
selfless devotion and concern for the alcoholic has caused her many friends to name
Hunterdon's first halfway house for women alcoholics Anderson House.
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