A funeral service will be held at 1:00 PM Saturday, February 23rd, at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta with a reception following celebrating her life with her family and friends.
Elizabeth “Beth” was born in Niagara Falls, Canada on January 13, 1936 to Andrew and Sophia Paulick of Budapest, Hungary. Beth grew up in Toronto and on April 12, 1948 moved with her family to Coral Gables, Florida. She attended Coral Gables High School and graduated in the class of 1953. While there she met her future husband, Thomas W. Ventulett III, FAIA. Beth attended Florida State University and a member of Delta Gamma Sorority and enjoyed reminding her husband Tom over the years that she had been on two dates with Burt Reynolds while at FSU. She was engaged in 1956 to Tom and returned to Coral Gables to take a job as the House Manager of the famed Coconut Grove Playhouse and she hosted the first off-Broadway appearance of “West Side Story”.
On December 29, 1956, high school sweethearts Beth and Tom were married at Riverside Baptist Church in Miami. Following their wedding, Beth moved to Atlanta to be with Tom while he finished his 5th year at Georgia Tech. To help support their new life together, she took a job at the Crosland Library at Georgia Tech. Following her husband’s graduation, the two moved to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma where Tom would be stationed in the Army. Beth’s only recollection of their time together at Ft. Sill was her constant need for wet towels to keep the dust out of their apartment. Following her husband’s time in the Army, the couple returned to Miami so that Tom could take his first job as an Architect working for Joe N. Smith, FAIA, who with Joe’s wife Gloria would become lifelong friends and godparents to their children.
Tom was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania, which took the couple to Philadelphia where Beth was Assistant to the Dean of Women at Penn. Following graduation from Penn, the couple moved to Atlanta where Tom could pursue his career in architecture.
While raising three young children, Beth began working with UNICEF. Over the following years, she helped raise awareness and significant funds to assist children around the world. During her tenure there, she became the Southeastern Director for UNICEF, which took Beth and Tom to remote villages in Ecuador bringing support and aid to children.
When Tom became president of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Beth shifted her focus to further support his endeavors. She started the first fundraising efforts for the chapter and opened the Atlanta AIA bookstore to support the organization.
Returning to her love of theater and in support of her daughter Suzanne’s interests, in 1976 she helped establish a formal theater program at The Lovett School. She acquired and designed hundreds of period costumes for productions over the subsequent eight years.
She then joined the Board of the Alliance Theater, raising money over the next ten years for the theater and its school. She helped elevate the annual “Christmas House” and other programs to build community involvement in the arts and theater programs for the city. Beth ultimately received the Paul Newman Humanitarian Award for Service as a result of her contribution to Atlanta.
In her commitment to support the natural beauty of Atlanta, Beth’s community service continued by elevating the Southeastern Flower Show from a small gathering to ultimately filling one of the main halls at the World Congress Center.
Beth has always taken the hopes, wishes and aspirations of her family and turned them into countless projects for improving the community. Beth and Tom were married for 63 years and the landmark buildings and award-winning architecture of her husband have been complemented by Beth’s contribution to the arts and community.
She is survived by her husband Tom; her children and their spouses Suzanne and Jimmy Holder, Thomas and Michelle Ventulett, and Jonathan and Marion Ventulett; her sisters and brother, Polly Hemmings, Helen Hamilton, and Jimmy Paulick; and her grandchildren Madeleine and Charlotte Holder, Will and Margaux Ventulett, and Nicholas and Isabella Ventulett.
In lieu of flowers please provide donations in her name to the Atlanta office of UNICEF at 1447 Peachtree St NE Ste 310, Atlanta, GA 30309 to carry on her spirit of enhancing the lives of children everywhere.
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