Bolding, Betsy

Part 1 of 3 was recorded on April 12th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

b. 1941 

  • Growing up in Glendale, AZ. Agriculture. Family jobs in Glendale. Perceptions of Phoenix and Tucson. High school education and interest in journalism. 

  • Move to Tucson and experience at the University of Arizona. Encounters with diverse students. Studying math and journalism. Social life. Joining a newly-launched sorority. 

  • Getting hired to teach journalism at Tucson Unified School District in 1962. 

  • An aside about a few years that Bolding lived in Texas in 1968-69 and worked with Neighborhood Youth Corps. Educational opportunities for women and Bolding’s mother’s education. 

  • TUSD in the 1960s, continued. The importance of journalism in high school.  

  • Leaving teaching and moving into politics with the election of Bruce Babbit to Arizona governor. 

  • The opening of Palo Verde High School and split sessions. The opening of Santa Rita High School. Working with gay students. Lack of impact of 1960s counterculture at Santa Rita High School. TUSD desegregation lawsuit and the changing geography of neighborhood schools. 

Part 2 of 3 was recorded on April 25th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Launching an interview program on local television in the 1970s called Women’s Place/Everyplace.  

  • Relation with the Women’s Movement. 

  • Volunteering on political campaigns as a child. Work on Democratic and Republican congressional campaigns in Southern Arizona. Collaboration between parties. Cultural changes in America over Bolding’s life and how they have changed grassroots political work. 

  • Campaigning for Morris Udall in the 1970s. 

  • Impressions of Bruce Babbit and working on his gubernatorial campaign. Important places to campaign. Local control over campaign plans. 

  • Opening and running the first Tucson office for an Arizona governor.  Working for Bruce Babbit. 

Part 3 of 3 and was recorded on June 29th, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Working on the Tucson Tomorrow committee in the 1980s. Sense of place in Tucson’s business community. Legacy of Tucson Tomorrow: sidewalks, curbs, sign code revision. 

  • Downtown Tucson in the 1980s. 

  • Savings and Loan collapse. 

  • Starting public relations and community outreach job at Tucson Electric Power in 1990, following a corporate scandal and reorganization. The volunteer culture of life-long TEP employees in the 1990s and 2000. Examples of outreach and low-income programs. Twenty-five years of changes at TEP, specifically in administration and green energy. 

  • Membership on the Arizona Theater Company board, the Temple of Music and Art, expansion to Phoenix. 

  • A few non-chronological stories: the Pioneer Hotel fire. Expansion of University of Arizona. Buildings that changed the feel of Tucson. 

Aengus Anderson