KUHN, Betty Ann

December 9, 1939 — October 30, 2026

Betty Ann Kuhn, born December 9, 1939, in Cumberland, British Columbia, passed away in Kelowna, British Columbia, on October 30, 2026, at the age of 86.

Daughter of David and Edith Hamilton, Betty grew up in Bevan, BC, alongside her older brother Gary. At a time when the career choices presented to young women often seemed to come down to nursing or teaching, Betty knew where she belonged. As she would later put it, she would rather “fill their heads than empty their bedpans.”

Betty completed her undergraduate education through Victoria College and the University of British Columbia and later earned a master’s degree in Special Education from Gonzaga University. She began her teaching career in the Cloverdale area before moving with Chuck to Kamloops, where she spent much of her career in the local school district. She also taught special education to other educators at Thompson Rivers University, then known as Cariboo College.

Special education became both Betty’s professional specialty and one of the clearest expressions of her belief in people. She had a strong conviction that every life had value and potential. Rather than allowing a diagnosis, background or others’ expectations to define a student, Betty focused on the individual and on finding the way that they learned.

Her commitment frequently extended beyond the classroom. Betty gave freely of her time and energy to students others might have underestimated or overlooked, organizing trips and helping them pursue further education, employment and experiences that might otherwise have been beyond their reach. Children with disabilities or learning difficulties, those from disadvantaged or marginalized communities, and those who were simply seen as different found in Betty someone firmly in their corner. She saw possibilities in people that others sometimes failed to see.

Betty’s desire to widen the circle extended to public service. She was instrumental in founding the Rotary Club of Kamloops Sunrise and was among the early women to serve as a Rotary Club president in Canada. A Paul Harris Fellow, she was deeply involved in Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio, raising funds and advocating for PolioPlus.

Betty and Chuck’s home operated on an unofficial family motto: “The more the merrier.” Betty was a good cook with more than a few memorable dishes, but what was served was never as important as who was sitting around the table. The door was open to Sue and Steve’s friends, their friends’ friends, and seemingly anyone else who happened along. Another arrival simply meant another place at Betty’s table.

Over the years, that table grew into an extraordinary international family. Through Rotary, Up With People, Lester B. Pearson United World College, Jaycees and simple happenstance, young people from around the world arrived in Betty and Chuck’s life. Their exchange “daughters and sons” came from Australia, Mexico, Germany, Denmark, Brazil and the Philippines, while Sue’s UWC classmates and Steve’s Up With People castmates added still more. Some called Betty their host mother; many considered her a second mom. Most importantly, those relationships endured, with visits reciprocated decades later and across the world.

For all the friends who became family, Betty’s own family remained central to her life. When Sue and Steve brought partners into the family, Betty’s instinct was simply to enlarge the circle. She took enormous interest in her four grandchildren, Ileana, Mattias, Harper and Willa, sharing her skills in art, cooking and gardening and, perhaps most importantly, her curiosity about the world.

Betty encouraged her children and grandchildren to travel and helped make those opportunities possible, joining them on trips, arranging others and sometimes helping fund their adventures. Closer to home, family visits often included Betty working in a garden or improving a yard, leaving Sue and Steve’s homes a little better, and quite possibly worth a little more, than she found them.

Travel was one of Betty’s great passions. She and Chuck explored the world throughout their nearly 64 years of marriage, by plane, cruise ship, railway, car, bikepacking, hiking and even camel. They enjoyed travelling on their own, with family, particularly Pat and Norm, and with the many close friends they made through work, service and community activities, including Terry and Jean. As with so many people who entered Betty and Chuck’s lives, many of these friends became like family. There are simply too many special relationships to name, but they enriched their lives with decades of fellowship, travel and shared adventures. Their travels eventually took them to all seven continents, an accomplishment in which Betty took particular pride, including Antarctica when Chuck was 82.

Travel for Betty meant experiencing other cultures, meeting people, learning, looking at art and bringing home new ideas, stories and friendships. An accomplished artist herself, she painted in oil, acrylic and watercolour and collected works from artists around the world. Her home reflected a lifetime of looking closely at the world and bringing pieces of it home with her.

Betty was predeceased by her beloved husband Chuck, with whom she shared nearly 64 years of marriage and a lifetime of family, service, friendship, dancing and adventure, as well as by her brother Gary and his wife Barb. She is survived by her daughter Sue and her partner Dave Rathnow; son Steve and his wife Kelly Maddox; grandchildren Ileana and her fiancé Skender Spaho, Mattias, Harper, and Willa; nephews Mike and Dave; and an extraordinary extended family, both related and acquired along the way.

Betty’s legacy can be found in students who discovered they were capable of more than others expected; in teachers influenced by her approach to special education; in the fight to eradicate polio; in gardens she improved, and paintings she created; in children and grandchildren encouraged to explore the world; and in people who arrived as students, exchange students, classmates, castmates or friends and somehow became family.

If you happened by the Kuhn household, there was room for you. If you needed a meal, another place could be set. If you needed encouragement, Betty would give it, although quite possibly accompanied by a firm opinion about what you ought to do next. And if all of that could be discussed over a glass of white wine, so much the better. Betty enjoyed hers right to the end.

To see and hear more about Betty (as well as Chuck and their life together), please refer to Betty (& Chuck) Online Memorial (tinyurl.com/bettykuhn). The family appreciates your support and requests that any floral tributes be replaced with donations to the Rotary International Foundation PolioPlus Fund (my.rotary.org/polioplus-fund).

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