At 82, Benefactor Betty Williams Still Takes the Cake: Ideally, Angel Food
It was a double-orchid corsage and a triple-tier birthday cake for commercial developer Betty Hutton Williams of Villa Park last week.
Supporters of the Discovery Science Center paid tribute to Williams on her 82nd birthday during a dinner at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach.
Williams, a philanthropist who prefers that her mega-donations to Orange County charities be kept quiet--”I like to research things on my own, rather than have development people coming after me all the time,”--has donated more than $1 million to the 76,000-square-foot science center, which is scheduled to open in Santa Ana in 1997.
“This is a little embarrassing,” said Williams, who wore a black sequin jacket and chiffon skirt to the affair. “But I am happy to be here on behalf of the museum.”
During the festivities, which included a champagne reception for the science center’s major donors, Williams was saluted with a video presentation that chronicled her life.
Williams, an Orange County resident since she was 2, went on to attend UCLA and marry research chemist Harold Hutton in 1936. Together, they founded a small company that developed and supplied specialty fuels--including rocket and jet fuels--to the U.S. government.
After World War II, they helped rebuild the oil industry in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia and eventually became contractors for the Thai government.
When her husband died in 1975, Williams discontinued operations in the Far East and formed Orange County-based Hutton Associates--now known as the Betty L. Hutton Co.--a property management and land development company .
“You are looking at a princess--the top of the heap,” said museum board Chairman James (Walkie) Ray, as he escorted Williams to dinner.
Asked what flavor of birthday cake she preferred, Ray answered for her: “This is a woman who has done everything from surf Big Corona to travel the world. When you’ve done that, you don’t worry about the flavor of birthday cake.”
Said Williams: “Actually, I like angel food. It’s the frosting that I’ll take any way it turns up.”
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Spielberg, heart to heart: Movie director Steven Spielberg’s father, Arnold Spielberg, was among guests who attended the “In the Mood” dinner benefit for the Saddleback Memorial Heart Institute last week at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.
A resident of Leisure Word in Laguna Hills, the 78-year-old Spielberg said it was institute cardiologist Richard Caso who helped give him a new lease on life after heart disease was diagnosed two years ago.
“Dr. Caso placed me on a diet and exercise regimen . . . and I’ve since lost about 20 pounds and feel better than I have in years,” he said.
Spielberg says he feels so good he was able to hike four miles at altitudes exceeding 11,000 feet during a recent visit to Crater Lake in Aspen, Colo. Karen Stevens and Paula Raelson were co-chairs of the $100 per-person benefit.
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Honoring the Herberts: Gavin and Ninetta Herbert, owners of Casa Pacifica in San Clemente--once Richard Nixon’s Western White House--were honored last week by Julie Nixon Eisenhower at a docent tea held at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda.
The Herberts were singled out by Eisenhower for their donation of the Carillon electronic bells that chime hourly at the library, playing patriotic songs such as “Stars and Stripes Forever.” She presented them with a signed, framed photograph of her parents.
Eisenhower was in California to attend a luncheon at Arco in Los Angeles with library supporters who are organizing the April 27 “Architect of Peace” dinner that will honor Walter Annenberg. After the luncheon, Eisenhower met with library docents to thank them for their support.
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Pacific Symphony bash: French-Canadian pianist Alain Lefevre schmoozed with Pacific Symphony supporters backstage at the Orange County Performing Arts Center following his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Segerstrom Hall last week.
Orchestra buffs dined on pastries and sipped coffee in Founder’s Hall, while Lefevre and his wife, Johanne, an attorney, received accolades for his performance.
Johanne said her husband of 11 years had been practicing “eight hours a day, six days a week” to prepare for his appearance with symphony conductor Carl St.Clair.
Lefevre, 32, called the Rachmaninoff concerto “one of the most extraordinary concertos ever written” and said the occasion was a sentimental one for him. “It was a year ago that I lost my father,” he said.
Among orchestra supporters raving over Lefevre’s work was Sharon Lesk, a trustee of the Leo Freedman Foundation, sponsor of the orchestra’s classics concert series.
Lesk had more than the concert to celebrate, she said.
“I have just been named by Ross Perot the new California executive director of United We Stand America,” said Lesk, an attorney.
Her agenda for the organization?
“I want to unite the group and begin to debate issues like whether or not there should there be another political party,” she said.
Lesk said she was unsure whether Perot would make another stab at the presidency in 1996.
