2015 Mr./Ms./Mrs. San Diego Program

Betty Peabody

The Past Presidents of San Diego Rotary have proudly selected Mrs. Betty Peabody as this year’s recipient of the
2015 Mrs. San Diego Award.

Please join us on September 24th at the Liberty Station Conference Center to honor Betty for her leadership and contributions to the City of San Diego.

Betty Peabody’s interests, volunteerism, and achievements in the San Diego community have been many and varied, but all were due to her tireless passion for the betterment of our city.

Volunteering for Balboa Park almost daily since 1969, Betty co-founded the Friends of Balboa Park with the vision of keeping the park alive well into the next century.  They have implemented over 200 projects in 15 years, funded by private donations of more than $4 million.  These range from the five information kiosks placed around the park, to mapping the water pipe infrastructure with SDSU students and to returning the 5th grade San Diego Unified School program to the Park. Their latest project, The Friends’ Water-Wise program, was designed to optimize water use in the park to make the park more environmentally sustainable while keeping it healthy and attractive for visitors.

Betty has served on the boards of the San Diego Museum of Man, the Central Balboa Park Association, and as president of the House of Hospitality and the Balboa Park Millennium Society. She conceived Christmas on the Prado which is now December Nights.

A founding member of the San Diego County Crime Stoppers, Inc., Betty has encouraged good people to report bad things anonymously for the past 31 years. Betty was recognized by their Lifetime Achievement Award and now Crime Stoppers gives the Betty Peabody Award annually to an individual or organization that has helped law enforcement or promoted public safety.

To honor legacies of her late husband, Dr. Homer Peabody (also a Mr. San Diego Award recipient in 1997), she currently serves on the Rees-Stealy Research Foundation Board and the Youth Tennis San Diego (Barnes Center) Foundation Board.  Her social and philanthropic interests include The Thursday Club, The Wednesday Club, UCSD Town and Gown, ARCS and San Diego Rotary Club.  She also sits on the board of the SDSU Friends of the Library and was a 2009 Mortar Board honoree.

Betty has been recognized for her contributions to our community, including most recently being the recipient of the San Diego Woman of the Year Award given by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins.  Atkins described Betty’s story as a “microcosm for the contributions that women make all over California and our great nation.”

Although born and raised in Oregon, Betty has adopted San Diego as her home.  She and Homer have four children, five terrific grandchildren and seven-plus special great-grands.  Betty also enjoys theatre, reading, and unusual travel experiences.