June 21, 1923 – June 9, 2024
Betty (Pick) Harrod passed away peacefully in her home on June 9 at 3:50 AM, with family by her side. She was less than two weeks away from her 101st birthday.
Born Betty Lou Kemp on June 21st 1923 in Omaha, Nebraska, she was the only child of Thayer Edwin and Mary Golda Kemp. In her early teens the family moved to Lincoln, NE where she attended high school. In 1947 she moved to San Francisco where she met and married Leslie Fremont (Lee) Harrod (1925 – 2012). After relocating to the Peninsula, the couple and their two daughters Lisa (b. 1950) and Leslie (b. 1953) settled in Menlo Park in 1956, where their son, Paul (b. 1958) was born.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s Betty served the area as an Avon representative. In the 1980s she joined the Seismology Department at Stanford Research Institute where worked for over 10 years as an assistant to Geologist Earl Brabb. Betty was loved by many for her generosity of spirit, her sense of humor and her all encompassing enthusiasm for life. She had a lifelong passion for movies and doll collecting and was a founding member of the Menlo Park Doll Club. In June of 2023, Betty’s 100th birthday was celebrated by family, friends and neighbors at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto. As to her vitality and longevity she remarked, “The secret to a long life is not to try to live a long time, but to live life well.”
Betty is survived by her daughters, Lisa Harrod-Texeira (Don), Leslie Harrod Fish (Jim); son, Paul Kemp Harrod (Joanna); grandchildren, Claire (Matthew), Brooke (David), Max (Carly) and Spencer (Corey). She has seven great grandchildren, Sagan, Felix, Isadora, Ryland, Ellie, Adelaide and Levi.