Manuel and Lidia Bettencourt Memorial Endowment

To honor their parents, Manuel and Lidia Bettencourt, Stan and Sam Bettencourt created a scholarship in their memory.

Manuel was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and when he was 5 his parents returned to their home on the island of Graciosa in the Azores, Portugal.  Lidia was born on the island of San Miguel, also in the Azores. Both sides of the family – Stan’s and Sam’s grandparents - were involved in agriculture production.  They processed grain by windmill milling and marketed their crops to other Azorean islands and mainland Portugal. In the late 1940's, Manuel and Lidia were married in the Azores and migrated soon after to the United States. Manuel began his career in California as a dairy milker and by the early 1950's, he and Lidia became dairy owners. Lidia, in addition to raising four children, could do almost anything on the dairy. Both sons, Stan and Sam, at a very early age learned to work alongside their parents on what was truly a family dairy without any outside help. Manuel and Lidia worked extremely hard and made many sacrifices so that their children could pursue college educations. Stan and Sam both attended Fresno State and studied agricultural business and plant science.   Although Manuel and Lidia took pride in their Portuguese heritage, they were proud Americans as later Lidia became a naturalized US citizen. They both loved the agricultural industry and believed in the pursuit of higher education. Manuel and Lidia were a great example of achieving the American dream.