Elizabeth Reynard (1897–1962) was an English professor at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

. She served in the military, helping to establish the

WAVES Waves most often refers to: *Waves, oscillations accompanied by a transfer of energy that travel through space or mass. * Wind waves, surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water. Waves may also refer to: Music * Waves (ban ...

(Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and was the first woman to be appointed lieutenant in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

Early life

Born in Massachusetts, she moved with her mother following her father's death to New York City. The family was "virtually destitute" following his death. She graduated from

in 1922, having worked as a copywriter during her time there. Her senior year, she won the $1,200 () Helen Prince memorial prize for excellence in composition.

Career

She taught part-time at Barnard following her graduation. By 1939, Reynard was the head of the new American Studies department. She retired in 1947. She took a leave of absence when working as a professor at the college to help the Navy develop a program to incorporate women into the military, which resulted in the WAVES. Reynard was second in command of the WAVES. It was led by

Virginia Gildersleeve Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (October 3, 1877 – July 7, 1965) was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States ...

. She was transferred to New York to work at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, where she developed a training program to be used by the WAVES. She was the first woman to be appointed lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve. She authored ''The Narrow Land'' (1934) and ''The Mutinous Wind'' (1951).

Personal life

Reynard was the companion of Virginia Gildersleeve, who was the Dean of Barnard College, and the sole female US delegate to the April 1945 San Francisco

United Nations Conference on International Organization The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Calif ...

. By 1947, they were living together in Bedford, New York and spending the summers in

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

, Massachusetts. Reynard died in 1962 and Gildersleeve died three years later, having moved to a nursing home in Cape Cod after Reynard's death. They are buried together at Saint Matthew's Episcopal Churchyard, Bedford, New York. Documents by and about Reynard, including digital images of scrapbooks she maintained about the WAVES, are held at the

Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynard, Elizabeth 1897 births 1962 deaths American academics of English literature Barnard College alumni Barnard College faculty LGBT people from Massachusetts American LGBT military personnel American women academics Military personnel from New York City Female United States Navy officers American women non-fiction writers WAVES personnel 20th-century LGBT people