If you ask Dr. Elizabeth "Bettie" Bond, retired history professor, what she does at the Appalachian Cultural Museum, she will in all likelihood reply, "Oh, I just play!" She does far, far more than that. Bettie plans and organizes the Museum's outreach trips, which serve as a wonderful venue for people to meet and share amazing experiences at museums, plays, festivals, fairs, and whatever else she discovers or thinks of that looks like fun. Her groups have traveled as far as Newport, Rhode Island; Wilmington, Delaware; Pennsylvania; and Kentucky and made short excursions to the Barter Theater in Abingdon, VA, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, and to see Riders in the Sky at Tweetsie Railroad, down the road in Blowing Rock.

Outside of the Museum, Bettie is also busy. Most recently she was honored by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce as the Volunteer of the Year. She was also selected as Woman of the Year for 2000 by the Watauga County Council on the Status of Women. She is on the boards of the ASU Belk Library, Watauga County Arts Council, Watauga County Community Foundation and Watauga County Library Endowment, and enjoys working with the Humane Society, Heart Association, and ISS (Institute for Senior Scholars).

Bettie is shown here with her husband, John. John is a retired professor of micology at Appalachian State, and also contributes greatly to the Museum. He is our "head gardener," who helped us plan our butterfly and wildflower gardens, wrote the plant descriptions for their pages on this site, and regularly contributes to the Museum's newsletter.

Click here to e-mail Bettie and John Bond.