Betty Castor - Background

Background

Castor was born and grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey, the daughter of Gladys F. (née Wright) and Joseph L. Bowe. Her father was the mayor of Glassboro. She attended Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), earning her bachelor's degree. While at Glassboro she was active in organizing a drive to support education in Uganda. Because of her activities, President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a diplomatic mission to attend the independence celebrations in Kampala, Uganda in 1962. Following her graduation in 1963, she attended Teachers College, Columbia University and subsequently went back to Uganda and taught secondary school as part of the Teachers for East Africa program. While in East Africa, Castor participated in a project to help lead two dozen African school girls to the summit of Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, the first all-female expedition to accomplish this.

She returned to the U.S. in 1965, married Donald Castor and moved to Dade County, Florida where Castor was a teacher while studying for her Master of Education degree at the University of Miami. While living and studying in Miami, Castor's first daughter, Katherine (Kathy), was born. Kathy Castor is currently the Congressional representative of Florida's 11th congressional district, which includes portions of greater Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida.

After receiving her Master's Degree in 1968, Castor moved with her family to Tampa, where she joined the League of Women Voters's Tampa chapter, becoming its president in 1970. Castor's second daughter, Karen, was born in 1968 and her son, Frank, who currently serves as judge in Palm Beach County, Florida, in 1970. In 1972, she ran for the Hillsborough County Commission. An advocate of environmental protection and governmental reform, Castor faced ten opponents in the Democratic Primary and faced a general election opponent as well. She won all the contests, becoming the first woman ever elected to the County Commission. During her term, she chaired the Environmental Protection Commission and became chair of the Board of County Commissioners in 1976. Later in 1976 she was elected to the State Senate and served until 1978 when she ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor. She was elected again to the Florida Senate in 1982 and became the president pro tempore of the Senate in 1985, the first woman to hold the post. Castor served on numerous education committees and became chair of the appropriations sub-committee on education. She was the co-sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment (1977) and championed bills to end discrimination and fund spouse abuse centers statewide. She successfully sponsored legislation providing for the early childhood education program.

In 1986, Castor was elected statewide to the Florida Cabinet as Florida Education Commissioner, the first woman ever elected to the state cabinet. As Commissioner of Education, Castor served on the Board of Regents and as a member of the Community College Coordination Board. She worked with the legislature to fund the first statewide program to provide funding for the early childhood education program. She worked also with the Insurance Commissioner to develop the Healthy Kids program, providing health insurance for low-income children enrolled in public schools.

In 1989 Castor, who divorced in 1978, married Samuel P. Bell III, an attorney and partner at Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell & Dunbar (a Tallahassee law firm).