Elizabeth "Betty" Mooney

Elizabeth “Betty” Kaatz Mooney passed away on February 21, 2025, at the age of 99. Betty was born on January 20, 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was educated at Milwaukee University School before getting degrees at Beloit College, The University of Wisconsin, where she earned a Doctor of Arts degree, and at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Betty was taught to support her community and be charitable. Her behavior validated the lessons because she had a deep sense of commitment to organizations like Planned Parenthood, The YMCA, and the Boy Scouts of America. She was trained as a clinical psychologist, but preferred teaching and providing therapy rather than doing testing. Betty worked as a research associate at the Kinsey Institute for 7 years in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. With a deep desire to have the Kinsey work complete, she reestablished the connection by undertaking another Kinsey project in 2005. All her life Betty loved to travel. To support her desires, she applied for and received grants to study in faraway places. She worked in Venezuela in the early 1950’s, in the middle 1950’s she had a grant from the Ford Foundation which allowed her to work at the United Nations in New York, at UNESCO in Paris, and in a small village in Egypt.

For 31 years she was married to Francis Mooney, M.D. and together they fostered and raised children who needed stability and love. During her marriage she worked, primarily, with adolescent and young adults. This was a field she was excited about and to which she made many professional contributions. She was sublimely happy in the classrooms of the Universities where she taught for more than 45 years. Betty loved to learn. She continued to advance her professional knowledge and her dedication to service by her many years of activity in the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, on whose Board of Directors she often served. She was certified by this association as an educator, therapist and supervisor of those in training. 

After the death of Dr. Mooney, she continued her work with young adults as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of North Central Indiana. She retired from that position in 1994, while continuing to teach at Indiana University South Bend. In 1990, Betty and James Inwood joined together in a search for culture and education. They traveled often and maintained a home on the island of Paros in the Greek Cyclades. 

Betty is survived by close and loving friends and her accumulated children. They were blessed by Betty’s warmth, generosity, love of life, that she laughed often and was wonderfully irreverent and whimsical. She will be cremated, and her ashes will be scattered on the mountainside close to her Parian home.