Necrology

Elizabeth “Betsy” A. Harvin '83

Apr. 14, 1961-Nov. 14, 2020

In 2014, Elizabeth “Betsy” A. Harvin ’83 pulled together a band of nine young, kindred spirits — mostly students — to travel with her to a village in China for a grassroots effort she dubbed “Go Fish Diplomacy.”

The group, assembled in Harvin’s home of Morristown, N.J., spent several weeks with young people in the village teaching and learning one another’s ­language through card games, songs (and ukuleles), and other casual approaches. Harvin, who spoke Mandarin, had spent years traveling, living, and doing business in China, including running her own silk garments company.

The group included her son and a few nieces, according to a feature story in the local publication Morristown Green. A few years later, the publication wrote another story about Harvin, a 1,600-word “Giving Tuesday” tribute after her death on Nov. 14, 2020.

“Harvin, who died last month of brain cancer at age 59, gave plenty to Greater Morristown. Described by her son as the ‘patron saint of breaking rules,’ she was a ball of fire who reveled in making gifts that make a difference,” began the story. Harvin’s philanthropy was often anonymous.

Her sister told Morristown Green that their minister father instilled in his family a deep sense of community and that Harvin would use whatever she had to do good. She was born on April 14, 1961, in Wheeling, W. Va., the daughter of Scott and Sue Harvin.

At Hamilton, Harvin majored in Asian studies and spent her junior year in an academic program in Nepal that may have kindled her passion for living abroad. After graduation, according to Morristown Green, she moved to Taiwan. She visited China for the first time in 1984.
At some point along the way, Harvin earned a degree from Pace University. She taught English in Beijing for a few years, started her business selling silk garments, and explored other entrepreneurial ventures related to China.

Although she lived in many places, Harvin settled in Morristown to raise her family. There, she “focused her bountiful energy on community-building and began lifelong involvement with nature and organic gardening and farming. In her later years, she added philanthropy, primarily supporting education and women’s and family issues,” a published obituary said.

Friends from her Hamilton days recall that she was whip-smart, mischievous with a unique wit, “and saw the world through the lens of wonderment.” One of her first-year roommates described her as the most vivacious member of the South quad, fun, brilliant, and extraordinarily kind.

In 2015, Harvin wrote a brief account of a road trip she made as a Hamilton first-year student. Brand new to the College, she and four seniors, all male, took an impromptu trip to catch a Grateful Dead concert in Saratoga Springs, a few hours away from campus. As it turned out, ­Harvin was the only one with cash — she had $20 — and the car was a heap that kept breaking down.

The trip, although a “cross-cultural experience,” was not fun for Harvin, who was hungry and irritated. Yet the excursion evolved into a lesson that she absorbed. Eventually she understood how she could have salvaged the day with a better attitude, “at the very least to dance to the Dead music blaring from the cassette tape.” Instead, she was stone-faced. The punchline, Harvin said, was when they reached the venue, there was no concert.

“That day … formed me, I think. It took me years to take those lessons to heart, but how they have served me. And I always pack at least $40,” Harvin wrote.

Besides her son and her sister, survivors include her mother, two stepchildren, and two brothers.

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