Betty Jane Diener, who in 1979 became the first woman to serve as dean at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, died earlier this month at a clinic in Weston, Florida. She was 74 years old.
Dr. Diener was a native of Washington, D.C. She was a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts and earned an MBA and a Ph.D. in business administration from Harvard Business School. The accompanying photograph shows Dr. Diener when she was a student at Harvard Business School.
Dr. Diener was a professor and assistant dean at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland when she was appointed dean of the College of Business at Old Dominion University in 1979. She left the university in 1982 to become secretary of commerce for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
After leaving public service, Dr. Diener was named provost and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Later, she was a professor of management and analysis at the School of Business at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida.