The Elizabeth Brown Calleton Endowment provides unrestricted support for PCF’s local grantmaking and honors Beth’s lifelong commitment to community health, education, and women’s rights. Established by her children, the fund continues her legacy of service and advocacy for a stronger, more equitable Pasadena.
OVERVIEW
The Elizabeth “Beth” Brown Calleton Endowment provides unrestricted support for Pasadena Community Foundation’s local grantmaking. This is a Fund for Pasadena, which benefits Pasadena-area nonprofit organizations working to sustain and uplift our community.
Beth Calleton’s life work was ensuring that every child was a wanted child. As a student at Smith College and Columbia University in the 1950s, Beth was at the forefront of the growing women’s movement, and her dedication to women’s rights informed many of the causes and organizations she worked for over the course of her life and career. She strove to ensure that all people had access to health care, education, and a network of support, and her extensive community work was centered on those goals.
She served as Executive Director for 22 years at Planned Parenthood of Pasadena, where she is remembered as a steady, fearless leader. She was especially passionate about health education and culturally fluent outreach, and during her tenure, Planned Parenthood expanded its services exponentially and established peer education programs, anonymous hotlines for teens to ask questions, and Spanish- and Mandarin-bilingual outreach.
Beth also extended her time and energy to countless additional organizations in the area. She volunteered for The League of Women Voters, Young and Healthy, Zonta, the Altadena Children’s Center, the United Nations Association, the Women’s City Club, the Pasadena Senior Center, the Pasadena AIDS Community Coordinating Committee, and the Pasadena Unified School District Community Health Advisory Committee.
In her rare moments of free time, she enjoyed traveling to Russia, China, India, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. She also enjoyed spending time with her children, Chris and wife Jennifer; Pam; and Susan and husband Curt, as well as five adored grandchildren; Eric, Rachel, Kylie, Cade and Keira.
Beth’s dedication to the health and well-being of her community was the foundation of her professional life, her volunteer work, and her philanthropy. Beth established a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) with PCF in 2004 and made gifts to many organizations over the next 14 years. When she passed away in October, 2018, Beth’s children wished to honor her unique legacy and help continue her work on behalf of the people of Pasadena. They made the decision to gift the balance of Beth’s DAF to PCF to establish the Elizabeth Brown Calleton Endowment. The endowment will support PCF’s local grantmaking, including many of the organizations that Beth loved, and ensure that her legacy continues to enrich the community to which she was so dedicated.
Through this fund, PCF has been able to
For more information about PCF giving opportunities, please contact
Pasadena Community Foundation
301 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 810
Pasadena, CA., 91101
626.796.2097
pcfstaff@pasadenacf.org
