About Us

Betsy was raised in the student housing/food service business from the age of 9 when her parents, Bob and Mary Lee Hendrick, bought their first student house at 1111 W. Illinois St., Urbana. She attended grade schools in both Champaign and Urbana and graduated from Champaign High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the College of Media, University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign. She was reporter on The Daily Illini, The News-Gazette and was employed in public relations for the Illinois Dept. of Public Safety, Traffic Safety Division, Springfield, returning to Urbana as resident manager of Hendrick House.

After a few years at Hendrick House, she worked in the Office of the Cook County (Chicago) Sheriff and eventually became the Sheriff’s Press Secretary. The next few years she was between Hendrick House working with her mother and the Sheriff’s Office, finally returning in 1984 as President/CEO of Hendrick Dorms, Inc. following the death of her mother. Her father had passed away in 1978.

Hendrick Dorms, Inc. is an extremely successful company with occupied residence halls and an extensive outside food service which started with off-premises catering for many Greek and privately owned houses on the UIUC campus and has recently expanded to catering for Parkland College and local daycares.

She enjoys continuing contact with former residents, both recent and from her early years with Hendrick House. Her daughter, Becky, who was born when Betsy was resident manager, worked in the family business for 20 years and now enjoys the good life as a graduate student at the University of Illinois, School of Social Work, pursuing her MSW.