Author, Teacher, Historian, and WW1 Military History Lecturer
M.A.
Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, 1981.
B.A.
California State University at Los Angeles, 1976.
A.A.
Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California, 1975.
Bill Betten is not only an author and award-winning teacher, (retired after more than three decades instructing at all grade levels,) he is also a Co-Director of the California WW1 Centennial Task Force, and the key founder of the California WW1 Centennial Advisory Council.
Bill has been published in trade journals and periodicals, and has just completed the first books of a series of historical novels called Doughboys, based upon the true stories of his grandfather and other unknown heroes of WW1. (See WW1Doughboys.com) He is a member of the Palm Springs Writers Guild, the California Writers Club-I.E., the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, the California Reading Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the California Music Educators Association, the California Alliance for Jazz, and the California Band Directors Association.
For more than a decade he was also the director of numerous prize-winning California youth bands. After having had his work with youth recognized and applauded by such organizations as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Boy Scouts of America, Bill turned his attention to commemorating, and honoring those who served in the Great War by founding the California WW1 Advisory Council which later developed into the California WW1 Centennial Task Force.
He has three degrees from California colleges including a Bachelors of Arts in Communications from CSULA, and a Masters of Arts in Education from Claremont Graduate University.
He is a National Archives Identified Researcher, a member of the WW1 Historical Association, and a proud member of the American Legion Squadron 43 in Hollywood, California, as well as a national member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary through the exemplary service of his father in Korea, and his grandfather in France during World War 1.
Visit BillBetten.com for more information on Bill and his work.