In Memoriam: Betsy Palmer, 1959-2013

Betsy Palmer, an associate professor of education at Montana State University, died from injuries suffered in a landslide while she was visiting Nepal. She was 54 years old.

Professor Palmer was in Nepal with a group of 16 students from the university for a course entitled “Great Expeditions.” None of the students were injured in the landslide in Nepal’s Arun River Valley.

Dr. Palmer joined the Montana State University faculty in 2001. She previously taught at the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama. She met her husband on a trip to Nepal in 2005 and spent the 2011-2012 academic year in the country conducting research. The couple has five-year-old twins.

Dr. Palmer was a graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. She held a master’s degree from Western Washington University in Bellingham and a doctorate in higher education from Pennsylvania State University.