Beverly Rose Abrams

Bev awakened every morning with a smile on her face. Bev Abrams was an educator who has been a teacher, counselor and administrator for the past 45+ years with students of all ages.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in sociology and a multiple subject credential from UCLA, and her Master of Arts in human development from Pacific Oaks College.  Bev made the world a better place. Bev served as director of education at Congregation B’nai B’rith from 1981 to 1988.  During that time, she established the Temple preschool, Beit haYeladim.  She helped found Santa Barbara Charter School and served as its educational leader for many years until retiring in 2019.  Bev was committed to educating students in order to live in a pluralistic and democratic society. She believed that understanding one’s self and heritage are essential foundations for reaching this goal.  To this end, she devoted her energy to engaging children and students in study, acts of justice and loving kindness.   

A dear friend wrote; 

Both of these schools have flourished and are a testament to the skill and passion that she put into them. She put the same skill and passion into her family and friends as she and Richard raised their two sons and cultivated a close-knit circle of friends.  She had several serious health challenges; any one of them would have been more than enough. But she faced each of them with unflappable strength and resilience unlike anything I have ever seen before. While she was slight in body, she was mighty in character.  I will miss Bev. I will miss how being in her presence made me feel like becoming a better person. I thought that we would be friends for many years, but alas it was not to be. I’m glad she is at peace now.   

Bev is preceded in death by her son Matthew.  She is survived by her son Adam (Jessica Solis), and her husband Richard, her brothers Seth Hochberg-Miller (Lisa Hochberg-Miller) and Roger Miller (Robin Sweeney).  Bev loved her family, both immediate and extended.  She loved and cared deeply for her cousins, her brothers and her in-laws, and the ever growing extended family of her cherished nieces and nephews, and dear friends, some relationships going back to grade school growing up in the San Fernando Valley.  One of her passions was travel. She was always planning our next adventure, whether hiking glaciers above the Arctic Circle, or hiking our favorite Central Coast trails.  We camped at Lake Lopez and the Palisade region of the eastern Sierra Nevada.  Bev kept active mentally as well as physically.  Her yoga practice developed over 40 years of dedication, she was briefly a dance major at UCLA, and her kick boxing classes at Paragon over the past few years added many dear new friends.  She died at home, as she wished, with Richard and Adam close by. 

To honor Bev’s memory, donations may be made to the;  

Immigration Legal Defense Center (ILDC), at https://www.sbimmigrantdefense.org  or Santa Barbara Charter School, at [email protected]