BETTY, WARREN RANDALL

Warren Randall Betty, M.D. died on April 30, 2018 at Penn Presbyterian Hospital Philadelphia after pacemaker implant surgery. He graduated Indiana University in 1954 with an AB in Chemistry and acceptance into the Indiana University School of Medicine. His education was interrupted with a two-year stint in the U.S. Air Force. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1959 and did post-graduate work and a pediatric residency at the Jacobi Bronx Municipal Hospital Center in the Bronx from 1960-1962. He married Norma F. Carter in 1953 and they had two children, Lisa Cheryl and Michael Warren.In 1960 while a resident and young parent, Dr. Betty moonlighted with the Staten Island Medical Group answering house calls. Upon completion of his residency in 1962, he joined the Staten Island Medical Group. He served as the Group’s Chief of Pediatrics from 1974-1981 and was elected Medical Director in 1981 a position in which he served until his retirement in 1996. He was also Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1965 to 1995.Warren Randall Betty was born on April 21, 1931 in Chicago IL to Eula Corley Brewington and Arganey L’Avnire Lucas. He was raised by his mother and adoptive father, James McCabe Betty in Indianapolis IN and was a proud graduate of P.S.87 and Crispus Attucks High School (class of 1948) both segregated schools at the time.While an IU undergraduate, Dr. Betty served as houseman to President Herman B. Wells. The experience exerted a strong influence on his approach to his professional and personal life. Dr. Wells began his tenure at IU by ending a host of segregationist practices. Warren admired Dr. Wells’ quiet yet firm commitment to academic freedom and equal opportunity and the manner in which he treated all with equal respect and dignity. Warren’s parents instilled in him the value and importance of family, of civic engagement, and provided strong role models for “being as good as your word.”Dr. Betty served on many professional and civic boards including the Richmond County Professional Standard Review Organization, Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, Group Council Mutual Insurance Co., Island Peer Review Organization, Richmond County Medical Society, Professional Medical Conduct Board, and the Governor’s Commission on Hospital Information Data. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Staten Island Urban League, Advisory Council of The State Division of Human Rights, the Cape May County Culture and Heritage Commission, the Greater Cape May Historical Society and the Shoreline Railroad Historical Society.He and his wife Judy Austermiller, whom he married in 1988, shared their love of travel by planning many trips with family and friends. Dr. Betty especially loved train travel and model trains, a hobby that he pursued with great enthusiasm through his retirement years.He will be remembered for his warm hugs and smile, and his cooking skills honed as a teenager in his family’s barbecue restaurant. Biscuits, lemon meringue pie and BBQ ribs were a few of his specialties.He is survived by his wife, Judy Austermiller, daughter Lisa Betty and husband Rolf Demmerle, son Michael Betty and wife Monique, grandchildren Michael Warren and Morgan Adair Betty, Tyler Macabe and Caleb Randall Demmerle, step granddaughter Jessica Gorski and husband Nate and great grandson Griffin Nicholas Gorski, along with many beloved cousins, nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews and friends.A service in celebration of his life will be held on Sat. June 30, 2:00 pm in the theatre at Medford Leas, 1 Medford Leas Way, Medford NJ 08055.Memorial gifts can be made in his name to Doctors Without Borders, to the Wells Scholars Program Student Scholarships at the Indiana University Foundation or to the Medford Leas Arboretum Fund where a tree will be planted in his memory.