Appalachian Historian
A mountain childhood
“I know that you were born in Cumberland, Kentucky in 1931,” the interviewer begins. “I grew up in that little town in the Depression,” Betty Lentz Siegel replies, then sketches the geography of her Harlan County world: the market town of Cumberland, flanked by the company coal towns of Benham and Lynch just up the mountain toward Virginia.
In a later broadcast interview, Siegel reaches for a phrase that fit her own story. She called herself “a mountain woman,” crediting the Scotch-Irish values she learned in the hills, where dignity rested not on what you owned but on who you were. Her father worked in the mines, her mother kept the home warm before sunrise, and books were welcomed at the breakfast table.
Learning in place, then leaving to learn
Siegel started close to home at Cumberland College before transferring to Wake Forest, where she completed a B.A. in history and English. Graduate study followed at the University of North Carolina and Florida State University, with additional postdoctoral work at Indiana University. The educational arc appears again and again in her own first-person accounts.
Breaking barriers in southern higher education (corrected)
By the 1970s, she was breaking barriers in southern higher education. In her GPB interview and institutional records, she notes that she became the first woman dean of Academic Affairs for Continuing Education at the University of Florida (1971–76) and the first woman academic dean in Western Carolina University’s School of Education & Psychology (1976–81).
The first woman to lead a University System of Georgia institution
In 1981 the Board of Regents selected Siegel as president of Kennesaw College. With that appointment she became the first woman to head an institution in the University System of Georgia. Contemporary summaries from the New Georgia Encyclopedia and university records underscore the milestone.
A quarter-century later, the official system announcement of her retirement placed the transformation in measurable terms. When she arrived, Kennesaw enrolled roughly 3,500 students in 15 undergraduate programs. By May 2005, the campus served nearly 18,000 students across 55 undergraduate and graduate programs.
Building a university in public view
Oral history sessions recorded across the 1990s and in 2005 show how Siegel understood that growth. She praised the “dynamic faculty,” spoke about widening participation, and described the deliberate work of turning a regional four-year college into a comprehensive university rooted in teaching and community service.
Under her watch Kennesaw grew in the ways students notice most. Intercollegiate athletics began in 1982, eventually blossoming into championship seasons and a Hall of Fame that inducted Siegel in its inaugural class. The honor reflects how intentionally she backed athletics as part of a fuller collegiate experience.
Recognition from Georgia and Washington
State and federal tributes punctuated Siegel’s final year in office. On May 23, 2005, Rep. Tom Price entered a “Tribute to Dr. Betty Siegel” into the Congressional Record, citing twenty-five years of service. Days later, a Senate statement celebrated her leadership as she prepared to step down.
The Appalachian thread
Even as her career took her to North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, Siegel’s own words kept circling back to Harlan County. In that GPB conversation she linked her leadership style to “mountain values” that honored work, education, and community. A short line from the oral history reads like an epitaph for her beginnings: “Cumberland was the little village to which the miners came.” Those miners, those mornings, and that love of reading at the kitchen table never really left her story.
After the presidency
Siegel stepped down effective January 2, 2006. Kennesaw State noted her as president emerita and celebrated her role in shaping the modern university. She died on February 11, 2020 at age 89, with the university announcing her passing the next day.
Sources and further reading
Kennesaw State University Oral History Project – “Interviews with President Betty Lentz Siegel,” multi-part transcript with first-person accounts of her Harlan County childhood and presidency.soar.kennesaw.edu
Georgia Public Broadcasting – “A Conversation with Betty Siegel,” captioning transcript of a broadcast interview with mountain-values reflections and education timeline.assets.gpb.org
University System of Georgia press release – “Kennesaw State University President Betty Siegel to Step Down,” May 12, 2005, with enrollment and program growth figures.University System of Georgia
Congressional Record – U.S. House “Tribute to Dr. Betty Siegel” by Rep. Tom Price, May 23, 2005.Congress.gov
Congressional Record – U.S. Senate proceedings that include remarks recognizing Dr. Siegel during the week of her retirement announcement, May 26, 2005.GovInfo
KSU Archives – “KSU Presidents: Dr. Betty L. Seigel” collection overview and digitized photographs documenting her tenure and earlier life.soar.kennesaw.edu
KSU Fact Books and histories – Summaries of milestones, firsts, and athletics origins during Siegel’s presidency, 2004–2007 editions.Campus Hub
Board of Regents minutes – Selected actions and recognitions during her tenure.University System of Georgia
New Georgia Encyclopedia – Entries on Betty L. Siegel and on Kennesaw State University, contextualizing her selection and impact as the first woman to lead a USG institution.New Georgia Encyclopedia
Kennesaw State University News – Institutional obituary and tribute following her death, Feb. 12, 2020.Kennesaw State University
Atlanta Journal-Constitution – News obituary with career overview and quotations.AJC
Times Higher Education – National obituary providing career synthesis and context.Times Higher Education (THE)
KSU Athletics Hall of Fame – Profile and inductee lists noting Siegel’s role in building intercollegiate athletics.Kennesaw State University Athletics