Around Town
‘Best Dad Ever’: New Canaan’s Arthur Bettauer Turning 100
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By the time his twin daughters were born, New York City native Arthur Bettauer had lived through the Great Depression, fought in World War II and launched a long accountancy career with Price Waterhouse. He was 42 and it was the early-1960s—considered old at the time to have children. One daughter, Karen Harris, recalled on a recent afternoon, “He always said he started to eat healthy then, because he knew he was going to have to live a long time.”
He has. Next week, Bettauer will turn 100 years old—a milestone that he’ll celebrate in the northern New Canaan home that he and his young family moved into in 1972, but without them, as per COVID-19-related health restrictions.
“I feel a little heartbroken because it’s not the 100th birthday party we wanted to have,” said Harris, who graduated from New Canaan High School in 1980 with her sister, Nicole Bettauer. “Fortunately, his neighbors said they would do a car parade and honk their horns.”
They’ll be celebrating a singular life of learning, determination, humility and service.