Beverly Anne Norton (Vanbenthuysen)

Beverly Anne vanBenthuysen was born September 17, 1929 in Des Moines, Iowa to Herman vanBenthuysen and Pearl Augusta Miller. She was welcomed home by adoring sister Clover (19) and brothers Caryl (16) and Max (14).

Beverly's early years were marked by sadness as at the age of 6 her father died suddenly and at the age of 9 her mother also died suddenly. After her mother's death, Beverly went to live with Clover and her family. There she attended elementary school and high school in Urbandale, Iowa, graduating as valedictorian of her class in 1946.

With Beverly's father having been superintendant of schools, education was in her blood. She attended Central College, a Reformed church college, in Pella, Iowa and also Drake University in Des Moines. She completed her college years at Cal State Los Angeles with a BA in education and MA in school administration.

Following graduation, Beverly taught for 5 years at the Los Angeles Christian School (a Christian Reformed school). She lived in a home where she rented a room with kitchen privileges. Many of the children lived nearby and come over on weekends and they enjoyed different activities together like horseback riding and museum visits. Often the families would include Beverly in their weekend outings. One of those outings that stands out fondly for Beverly is going with the Strike family to the mountains and holding little Phillip on her lap while riding up a ski lift to enjoy the view. After church on Sundays she was often invited to a family's home for dinner.

Beverly recalls writing end of school year programs and Christmas programs that were performed by the students. One program that stands out in her memory was an operetta entitled, "Scenes from the lives of the Reformers." After the 5 years, along came the LA freeway and that was the end of the Christian school.

From there Beverly went to teach in the Gladstone school district in Azuza. Beginning in 1955 she began taking classes at Fuller Theological Seminary; teaching a half day and going to classes half day.

From 1961-1964 Beverly lived in Red Bluff, Tehama County where she worked as an elementary curriculum consultant. While in Red Bluff she became involved in the Presbyterian Church, teaching the high school class. She found her time in Red Bluff to be a very good experience. In 1964 Beverly moved to King's County and the city of Hanford. She was there two years writing curriculum guides for the elementary grades.

 From there Beverly moved to Monterey County for three years beginning in 1967. Here she worked as an Early Childhood Education consultant. She also directed the Head Start program for twelve school districts. In addition she worked with the Far West Regional Lab where the aides for the classrooms received their training, with the majority of them being from the Philippines. Beverly became involved in Carmel Presbyterian Church and was hired by them to coordinate their Sunday School program. She recalls the joy of working with the good staff there, many of them being retired teachers. It was here that Beverly met Richard (Rich/Dick) Norton as they lived near each other in the same apartment building. It all began with Beverly's offer of a cold glass of iced tea on a warm summer day as Dick was heading for the pool. They were married in Carmel Presbyterian Church in 1969 and moved to Sacramento in 1970.

Dick's father had been the Ag Commissioner for Yolo county. So, for Dick this was going back to his roots, having grown up in Woodland. After searching for just the right house, they purchased a home in the Natomas area with enough acreage to have some cattle, all having names!

Beverly was drawn back to education, teaching for ten years (1969-1979) in Alice Birney, William Land, John Sloat and other schools. Following this she was the Principal at Tahoe School in Sacramento for six years and then became a Curriculum Coordinator for Sacramento city elementary grades for three years.

All through this time Beverly was active in Fremont Presbyterian Church, especially in the area of missions. Travel was also a part of this time with Beverly going to the Philippines, Nicaragua and Ethiopia. Her trip to Ethiopia in 1996 had special significance. She was part of a Presbyterian team exploring mission opportunities. Beverly spent time in Mettu with the lllubabor Bethel Synod (IBS) where she learned of a people group called the Shekkacho which were in need of a partner to come alongside them. Kes Yonas and Kes Mersha were very vocal in encouraging this partnership so Beverly brought the recommendation back to the session at Fremont. The Shekkacho were taken on as a partnership which has continued to this day.

Shortly after this Harold Kurtz, long term missionary in Ethiopia, contacted Beverly with a request that Fremont build a new church in Masha. That was the beginning with Jaap and Miriam Hassnoot soon to follow from Holland to begin putting the oral language of the Shekkacho into a written form as the basis for beginning the translation of God's Word into the Shekkacho language. This partnership became a passion with Beverly and she was influential in bringing several other churches into this partnership. She was privileged to return to Ethiopia twice, once in 2005 on a visitation trip with other members of Fremont and then in 2007 Beverly was a part of a group of individuals that went over to Masha, Ethiopia to teach English to high school students for one month. This proved to be another significant way for Beverly to combine two of her heart passions, the Lord and education. In addition to the mission efforts at Fremont, Beverly was also very involved with missions at the Presbytery level. She also became very involved in Fremont's work with Earl Warren School, another partnership that began in 2000, ''The Year of the Child."