Retired Chadron State educator dies
Services for one of Chadron State’s best-known retired faculty members, Dr. Elizabeth (Betty) Jacobson McCawley, were Saturday, Jan. 17 at the Grace Episcopal Church. She died early Tuesday, Jan. 13 at the Chadron Community Hospital following a brief illness. She was 90.
Dr. McCawley was a native of Albion and was a long-time Nebraska educator. She had taught in Nebraska public schools for seven years before being elected superintendent of schools in Saunders County (Wahoo). After the death of her first husband, she began taking graduate courses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She was the only woman enrolled in many of those courses, and had numerous employment opportunities as she neared the completion of her doctorate.
She accepted Chadron State’s offer to establish the off-campus student teaching program in the fall of 1959. The story is told that she was promptly given the keys to one of the college’s two vehicles, a red Studebaker, so she could make her rounds. After a story about her and the CSC program appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, she was contacted by a childhood friend, Jerome Jacobson, who lived in Omaha. A cross-state romance developed and they were married after she’d been at CSC three years. He died after they were married two years.
She then accompanied a group of educators headed by former Chadron State President Barton Kline on an AID mission to establish a teacher education graduate school at the University of Dacca in East Pakistan. War with India broke out during the stay and the team was evacuated to the Philippines for six months. But the members made good use of their time by teaching at the university in Manila.
After the group returned to the U.S. in 1966, Dr. Jacobson rejoined the education faculty at Chadron State and served until 1978. She primarily taught introduction to teaching, psychology and philosophy of education courses. In 1979, she married Paul McCawley, who was the college’s business manager from 1957 through 1972.
The couple received the college’s Distinguished Service Award in July 1993. He died June 1, 1998.
She was active in numerous organizations, including PEO, Eastern Star, the CSC Golden Eagles, Friends of the Library and the Episcopal Women’s Guild. She was on the Chadron Park, Chadron Clean Community and Chadron Crime Busters Boards and was a Chadron Public Library Trustee. Survivors include a step-daughter Tekla Jacobson-Faust of Lincoln.
Betty loved Chadron State and attended many events on campus. She was frequently “the life of the party” in a sweet, charming way.
Category: Campus News