You can't help but wonder: What on earth drives an 80-year-old woman to climb out of bed at dawn and spend the better part of her day working? For free.

        “There's a lot that needs to be done. I do what I can.”

        What Betty Goldsmith can do — and has done — is a lot. A partial list of volunteer projects includes Family Service of Cincinnati; Children's Psychiatric Center; Planned Parenthood; Cancer Family Care; Seven Hills School; Radio Reading Services; Greater Cincinnati Foundation; People Working Cooperatively; United Way; Easy Riders; Hyde Park Center for Older Adults.

        Whew.

        Oh yeah, and the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute. She joined its board in 1976 and has been president for the past three years with no plans to step down.

        That position is why this 1980 Enquirer Woman of the Year, widowed mother of three and grandmother of four is getting philosophical here in the beige and white living room of her 1915 Hyde Park home: “The problem with psychoanalysis is too many people think if you need it, you're nuts.

        “But that's not true. It's simply an alternative to spending your life tied up in knots. I've experienced it, and I'm a better person for it. That's one reason I joined the board.

        “You can look at being on a board as a privilege or a license to work hard. I take it as the latter.”

        Heaven knows, the institute agrees. It's so happy with her work that it honored her with a huge 80th birthday party last week.

        That makes her even more philosophical: “80. I admire people my age whose bodies have held out,” she says, fiddling with her ever-present cane. “Being old has its rewards, like seeing your grandchildren go to college. But there are things I miss.

        “I miss golf and sailing in Maine. With golf, if you like it, it doesn't matter who wins. You just enjoy surprising yourself by shooting well. And sailing, well, there's no peace on earth like it. I used to have an 11-footer that I could take out alone and spend the day.”
       

Important lessons

               She inherited that love for sailing from her father, Richard Deupree, president of Procter & Gamble from 1930 to 1948: “He didn't even finish high school, but he was so smart. Everything I've learned that's important, I learned from him.”

        • Like the importance of education?

        “I was lucky. I was at Vassar in the '30s and it was a lovely time. But not everyone has had the same good luck. So I got involved with the Lower Price Hill Community School. It's a grass-roots group that helps high school dropouts get their GEDs.

        “It's privately funded and doing so well we have some in college. Now that's rewarding.”

        • Or the importance of digging up funds for agencies in need?

        “I hate asking for money, but I do it because there's a need. Right now, I'm involved with a group called Community Shares. It was founded by a small group of women to do payroll deductions and help support groups that United Way doesn't — Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Stonewall Cincinnati.

        “They're worthy groups that do good work, but can't do it without support.

        “So I keep myself busy with them, doing what I can. Besides, I get itchy if I sit still.”

        Right. So how about a round of fill-in-the-blanks ...

        The best thing about being 80 ...

You mean besides not being dead? I think it's the continuity in my life that's still going on. My grandmother was born in 1850, and I'm aware of her experience and feelings, so in a sense I have a grasp on 150 years.

        I volunteer so much because ...

I care about what happens to the organizations. I enjoy it, and they seem to want me.

        One thing the Cincinnati psychoanalytic community needs ...

More money, so people who can't afford treatment can be treated on some kind of sliding scale. The psychoanalytic community knows how to help people, but doesn't always have the financial resources.

        The biggest change I've seen in the psychoanalytic community ...

The expansion of the use of the analyst.

        If someone told me 50 years ago I'd still be doing this today ...

        Oh lord, I would have been 30 with two kids. I would have thought I wasn't good enough for it. That I didn't have the talent and that I wasn't well informed enough.

        One career highlight I'll never forget ...

There are so many. Just turning 80 is a highlight. But you know, for all the career highlights, the one thing I'll never forget, the real joy of living, is having your first child arrive.

        When I think of them honoring me, I think ...

Oh, I hope I don't do anything or make a mistake that would be detrimental to the institute.

        What really breaks my heart ...

A lot of things. Hunger, war, cruelty. But I guess I feel it's the number of children who are abused or neglected or abandoned in our city alone. Much less the rest of the world.

        When the world is too much for me, I like to ...

Really, it depends on how much it's with me. Mostly, I do a crossword puzzle or read a book about animals, something I've been doing since I was a zoology major in college.

        My worst habit ...

Paper. I have paper everywhere, and I can't keep track of it. You ought to see the next room. I literally have laundry baskets full of papers. If this is a war, the papers are winning.

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