Donna Lee Boutelle (October 8, 1931 – January 17, 2008) was an American medieval historian and college professor. She was a professor of history at

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

(CSULB), president of the West Coast Association of Women Historians from 1972 to 1973, and co-chair of the

Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession The Coordinating Council for Women in History is a national professional organization for women historians in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession to promote recruitment and s ...

from 1974 to 1975.

Early life and education

Boutelle was born in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, the daughter of Jeanette Allison Milton, a photographer. She attended Sequoia High School in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

Santa Rosa Junior College Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) is a public community college in Santa Rosa, California with an additional campus in Petaluma and centers in surrounding Sonoma County. Santa Rosa Junior College was modeled as a feeder school for the University ...

, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She earned an

associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...

at Santa Rosa in 1953, completed WAC training at

Fort McClellan Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, is a decommissioned United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million tr ...

in 1955, earned a bachelor's degree at Berkeley in 1960, a master's degree in history in 1962, and a PhD in history in 1970, with a dissertation titled "

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

and

Ermoldus Nigellus Ermoldus Nigellus, or Niger—translated Ermold the Black, or Ermoald (), was a poet who lived at the court of Pippin of Aquitaine, son of Frankish Emperor Louis I, and accompanied him on a campaign into Brittany in 824. Ermoldus was a cultured ma ...

: An Inquiry Into the Historical Reliability of ''In Honorem Hludowici''".

Career

In the 1950s and 1960s, Boutelle was a psychiatric technician at the Sonoma State Hospital. For over forty years, Boutelle was a history professor on the faculty at California State University, Long Beach. She achieved full professor status in 1978. She specialized in the early Middle Ages, and was associate vice-president for academic affairs at CSULB. She taught in New Zealand on an exchange program. She retired in 2004. Boutelle was president of the West Coast Association of Women Historians from 1972 to 1973, and co-chair of the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession. She regularly reviewed books for journals including '' RQ'' and ''

The History Teacher ''The History Teacher'' is a quarterly academic journal concerned with the teaching of history in schools, colleges, and universities. It began in 1940 at the History Department at the University of Notre Dame as the ''Quarterly Bulletin of the Tea ...

.'' She was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

Personal life

Boutelle married a Marine corporal, William Cavenaugh Rose, in 1950; they divorced in 1952. She died in 2008, aged 76 years, in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boutelle, Donna 1931 births 2008 deaths People from Sioux City, Iowa 20th-century American historians Santa Rosa Junior College alumni Women's Army Corps soldiers University of California, Berkeley alumni California State University, Long Beach faculty American women historians 21st-century American historians Historians from California Historians from Iowa Sequoia High School (Redwood City, California) alumni