Jeannette Ridlon Piccard ( ; January 5, 1895 – May 17, 1981) was an American high-altitude
balloonist
In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that ...
, and in later life an
Episcopal
Episcopal may refer to:
*Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church
*Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese
*Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name
** Episcopal Church (United State ...
priest. She held the women's altitude record for nearly three decades, and according to several contemporaneous accounts was regarded as the first woman in space.
[Shayler & Moule, pp. 12, 25–26]
Piccard was the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U.S., and the first woman to fly to the
stratosphere
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...
. Accompanied by her husband,
Jean
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
—a member of the
Piccard Piccard is a French surname, a variant form of Picard.
Notable people with this name
;Members of the Swiss Piccard family:
* Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), physicist, balloonist, hydronaut
* Bertrand Piccard (born 1958), psychiatrist, balloon ...
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of balloonists and the twin brother of
Auguste Piccard
Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Switzerland, Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking Gas balloon, hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere. Picca ...
—she reached a height of during a record-breaking flight over
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
on October 23, 1934, retaining control of the balloon for the entire flight. After her husband's death in 1963, she worked as a consultant to the director of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's Johnson Space Center for several years, talking to the public about NASA's work, and was posthumously inducted into the
International Space Hall of Fame
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of S ...
in 1998.
From the late 1960s onwards, Piccard returned to her childhood interest in religion. She was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
a deacon of the
Episcopal Church in 1971, and on July 29, 1974, became one of the
Philadelphia Eleven
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Ba ...
, the first women to be ordained priests—though the ordinations were regarded as
irregular, performed by bishops who had retired or resigned. Piccard was the first of the women to be ordained that day, because at 79 she was the oldest, and because she was fulfilling an ambition she had had since she was 11 years old. When asked by Bishop John Allin, the head of the church, not to proceed with the ceremony, she is said to have told him, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies."
In September 1976, the church voted to allow women into the priesthood, and Piccard served as a priest in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
, until she died at the age of 86. One of her granddaughters, Kathryn Piccard, also an Episcopal priest, said of her: "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do. She had the image of the street-wise old lady."
Early life and education
Born on January 5, 1895, in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, Piccard was one of nine children born to Emily Caroline (Robinson) and John Frederick Ridlon, who was president of the
American Orthopaedic Association
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
.
She had a lifelong interest in science and religion. When she was 11, her mother asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Piccard's reply—"a priest"—sent her mother running out of the room in tears.
Piccard studied philosophy and psychology at
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
, where in 1916 she wrote an essay titled "Should Women Be Admitted to the Priesthood of the Anglican Church?"
She received her bachelor's degree in 1918 and went on to study organic chemistry at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, receiving her master's degree in 1919. That same year she met and married
Jean Felix Piccard, who was teaching at the university.
Piccard was the mother of a house full of boys.
Robert R. Gilruth
Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 8, 1913 – August 17, 2000) was an American aerospace engineer and an aviation/space pioneer who was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
He worked ...
, one of her students and collaborators, said later in his oral history that he remembered a breakfast he had with the Piccards in a
St. Cloud, Minnesota
St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the county seat of Stear ...
hotel before a balloon launching, "I don't know how many there were. It seems like there was a dozen. ... I remember the youngest one took the corn flake box and dumped it on his father's head. Of course, Piccard just brushed it off his head and said, 'No, no.'"
"He was very gentle. He loved his boys, and he thought boys would be boys, I guess."
The Piccards had three sons of their own, John, Paul, and
Donald
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
(who would become a famous balloonist and ballooning innovator in his own right), as well as foster children. The Piccard family archive in the Library of Congress mentions correspondence from foster children whom the Piccards took in, although nothing else seems to be known about them.
The Piccards taught at the
University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...
from 1919 to 1926. In 1926 they returned to the United States, where Jean Piccard taught organic chemistry at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
The couple lived in
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
,
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
, and
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
before settling in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
in 1936 when Jean Piccard joined the faculty of the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
. She received a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota in 1942, and a certificate of study from the
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and the longest continuously operating Seminary in the Anglican Communi ...
in 1973.
Gilruth made a point of describing Piccard in his oral history. He said, "She was very bright, had her own doctor's degree, and was at least half of the brains of that family, technical as well as otherwise. ... She was always in the room when he was lecturing or otherwise, almost always. She was something. She was good."
David DeVorkin, curator of the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
, wrote a history of manned scientific ballooning. In DeVorkin's view, the Piccards' "entrepreneurship and subsequent success" in ballooning was due to "their enormous persistence ... and considerable confidence, pluck, and luck".
Stratosphere flight
Planning and pilot's license
After
Thomas G. W. Settle's record flight in the Piccards' ''Century of Progress'', the balloon was again returned to the Piccards, who decided to fly it to the stratosphere on their own. Jean would concentrate on the science, while Jeannette would pilot the balloon. DeVorkin wrote that, "Energetic and forceful, she seemed to have a better chance of obtaining a pilot's license than Jean, who was preoccupied with restoring the gondola and balloon and convincing scientists to provide instruments to fly". She studied at
Ford Airport in
Dearborn, Michigan
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...
, under Edward J. Hill, a balloonist and
Gordon Bennett Cup winner, who agreed to serve as flight director for the Piccards' planned stratospheric flight.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...
offered the use of his hangar and brought
Orville Wright (with his brother Wilbur, inventor of the
airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
and first human to fly a heavier-than-air powered aircraft) to observe a flight of Jeannette's in 1933. Her son
Don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
was a crew member that day and shook hands with Wright, "I was a little kid and he
aid
In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another.
Ai ...
attention to me."
On June 16, 1934, Jeannette flew her first solo flight.
Later that year, the
National Aeronautic Association
The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...
made her the first woman licensed balloon pilot in the U.S.
Auguste wrote to Jean in June 1934, "Hopefully you will make your flight ahead of other competitors. It would be nice, if the name of Piccard through Jeannette, would once more be placed on the record list of the F.A.I."
When she was interviewed near the end of her life, and asked why she had not hired a pilot and why she had decided to become a pilot herself, Jeannette replied, "How much loyalty can you count on from someone you hire?"
When she was asked if she had parachute training, Jeannette said, "No ... if, on the first time you jump, you don't succeed, there's no use trying again."
Search for funding
High altitude ballooning was a dangerous undertaking, partly because human lungs cannot function unaided over , and partly because the
lifting gas
A lifting gas or lighter-than-air gas is a gas that has a density lower than normal atmospheric gases and rises above them as a result. It is required for aerostats to create buoyancy, particularly in lighter-than-air aircraft, which include free ...
used, hydrogen, is flammable. Jeannette said later that, "The National Geographic Society would have nothing to do with sending a woman—a ''mother''—in a balloon into danger".
Longtime Piccard family backer
Goodyear were reluctant to support their flight.
Dow Chemical asked that their trade names and logo be removed from publicity and from the ''Century of Progress'' balloon.
Gilruth said, "I remember that Piccard was very, very hurt by the National Geographic that would not give them a dime. ... Both he and Jeanette said that they were discriminated against by the National Geographic. That's not a good word. They were not aided in any way by the National Geographic, and they felt it was not really warranted. They felt they should have gotten some help from them. ...
edidn't say why, but they certainly didn't feel they'd been handled fairly."
The Piccards struggled to gain financial support until the Grigsby-Grunow Radio Company advanced them several thousand dollars.
The Detroit Aero Club and People's Outfitting Company also backed them. To supplement their sponsorship, Jeannette designed and sold commemorative stamps and souvenir programs and folders.
She also raised a good deal of money by selling their story in press releases to the
North American Newspaper Alliance
The North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA) was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980. NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop S ...
.
Flight
![Dearborn Cadiz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Dearborn_Cadiz.png)
Forty-five thousand spectators came to see the Piccards off on October 23, 1934, at 6:51 am, about two hours behind schedule. Jeannette piloted the reconditioned ''Century of Progress'', and the couple took along their pet turtle, Fleur de Lys. After a brief pre-launch ceremony, during which the Piccards received a bouquet from their sons and a small band played
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
, they lifted off from
Ford Airport, assisted by airmen on the ground who pushed the gondola.
Jean changed the flight path and shortened the flight time because of cloudy skies, which reduced the amount of scientific work they were able to do.
Jeannette made "unplanned and impulsive maneuvres" and the Piccards failed to make complete records of their actions during the flight. The newspaper alliance had offered to pay them 1,000 if they broke the altitude record, so they jettisoned all of their sandbags, attempting to go higher.
They reached or about up, travelled for eight hours on a journey over
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
, and landed about away from Dearborn, near
Cadiz, Ohio
Cadiz ( ) is a village in Cadiz Township, Harrison County, Ohio, United States located about 20 miles from Steubenville. The population was 3,353 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Harrison County.
History
Cadiz was founded in 1803 a ...
. She had to choose a landing on elm trees, realizing that meant the ''Century of Progress'' would never fly again. The balloon separated from the gondola and was ripped. Jean sustained small fractures to his ribs, left foot, and ankle.
According to Jeannette's description in ''Time'' magazine: "What a mess! I wanted to land on the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
lawn."
Legacy
Her flight set the women's altitude record, and held it for 29 years, until
Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova ( rus, Валентина Владимировна Терешкова, links=no, p=vɐlʲɪnʲˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪʂˈkovə, a=Valentina Tereshkova.ogg; born 6 March 1937) is an engine ...
in 1963 became the first woman in
space
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...
, orbiting the Earth 48 times solo in the Soviet Union's
Vostok 6
Vostok 6 (russian: Восток-6, ''Orient 6'' or ''East 6'') was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space.
Mission
The spacecraft was launched on 16 June 1963. While Vostok 5 had been delayed by t ...
. According to the editors of
''Flying'' magazine, in their book ''Sport Flying'', published by
Ziff-Davis
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, and ...
in 1976, Jeannette was "the first woman in space, a claim allowed even by Valentina Tereshkova." She was also the first woman to pilot a flight to the stratosphere, and according to her obituary in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the first person to do so through a layer of clouds.
Later life, death of Jean Piccard
Jean and Jeannette felt they had succeeded by reaching the stratosphere, and they became popular lecturers.
[DeVorkin, pp. 126, 235] They prepared brochures and souvenirs to attract attention to the flight, one titled "Who Said We Couldn't Do It." But they had developed perhaps unreasonable expectations that lucrative university positions would come to them. Both wrote to dozens of colleges and universities, aiming high—even at college presidencies, trying to secure positions, but they received only rejections.
[DeVorkin, p. 235] In December 1934, Jeannette wrote to Swann to ask if Jean might become a member of the chemistry staff of the
Bartol Research Foundation
The Bartol Research Institute (formerly the ''Bartol Research Foundation'') is a scientific research institution at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Delaware. Its members belong to the faculty of the University of Delaw ...
at the
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...
, and also offered her services, but was turned down.
Luckily, they met a new advocate while on lecture tour to Minneapolis. Thanks to John Akerman of the department of aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota, Jean became an untenured professor in Minnesota by 1936, teaching and doing aeronautical studies until 1946 when he received tenure. During 1943, Jeannette was briefly an executive secretary at the housing section of the Minnesota
Office of Civil Defense
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) was an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961–64. It replaced the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The organization was renamed the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency on May 5, 197 ...
.
In 1946 until mid-1947, the Piccards were consultants to
General Mills
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
(the cereal company and dominant industry in Minneapolis) working under Otto Winzen, who Jean had met through the university. Winzen and Jean proposed a stratosphere flight with 100 cluster balloons and secured a government contract with the Navy. Featured in Navy press releases, Jean was named a project scientist responsible for gondola design and for testing the balloon film materials. But he balked, both at making weekly status reports that made him feel like a lower-level employee, and at the prospect of General Mills owning the patents to his ideas. Working as a consultant, Jeannette threatened to break off ties with the Navy and General Mills unless she was allowed to fly with Jean.
[DeVorkin, p. 276] Unfortunately this began a rift between General Mills and the Piccards.
They were both were fired in 1947, for they were too critical of Winzen and General Mills staff.
Jean retired from the University of Minnesota when he was 68, never giving up his dream of returning to the stratosphere.
[DeVorkin, p. 363] DeVorkin quoted a newspaper in 1952, "to Adventurer Piccard, no gondola probing the unexplored purple twilight of the stratosphere would be complete without him and his wife in it". Jean died in 1963.
Gilruth asked Jeannette to work as a consultant at NASA.
[ and DeVorkin, p. 320] She accepted and lived in a house in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
she shared with another woman. Jeannette spoke to the scientific community and to the public at NASA about the space program from 1964 to 1970, when
Project Apollo was created and
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
made the first manned Moon landing in 1969. Gilruth then noticed a shift in her interests, away from space and towards religion.
Episcopal priest
Ordination
In 1971, one year after the Episcopal Church admitted female
deacons
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
, Piccard was ordained a deacon and, on July 29, 1974, at age 79, under controversial circumstances, she was ordained a priest.
In
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, at the Church of the Advocate, three retired bishops – Daniel Corrigan, former church head of domestic missions, Robert L. De Witt of the
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
of Pennsylvania, and
Edward Randolph Welles II of the
diocese of West Missouri – ordained eleven women priests, cheered by a large congregation. A fourth bishop, José Antonio Ramos of
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
, was there but was out of his jurisdiction. All eleven women risked suspension as deacons, and the four bishops "could be suspended or deposed by a church trial court" for ignoring a church canon prohibiting retired bishops from performing "episcopal acts" unless asked by a local bishop. Five Episcopal priests objected at the point in the service when Corrigan asked if there was "any impediment" to the ordinations, one calling the ordinations a "perversion" and another calling them "unlawful and schismatical".
Piccard was the first of the eleven women ordained because she was the oldest and she was fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Carter Heyward
Isabel Carter Heyward (born 1945) is an American feminist theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church, the province of the worldwide Anglican Communion in the United States. In 1974, she was one of the Philadelphia Eleven, eleven women whose ...
another of the group who were known as "irregulars" and sometimes called the "
Philadelphia Eleven
The Philadelphia Eleven are eleven women who were the first women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church on July 29, 1974, two years before General Convention affirmed and explicitly authorized the ordination of women to the priesthood.
Ba ...
"became the 1974 ''
Ms.
Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'' magazine Woman of the Year. Suzanne Hiatt later said "In retrospect, to have been ordained 'irregularly' is the only way for women to have done it."
Alison Cheek
Alison Mary Cheek (April 11, 1927 – September 1, 2019) was an Australian-born American religious leader. She was one of the first women ordained in the Episcopal Church in the United States and the first woman to publicly celebrate the Eucharis ...
, Heyward, and Piccard joined in the consecration, and Piccard gave the absolution, in a celebration of the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
at Riverside Church in Manhattan in November 1974. Philip McNairy of the
Diocese of Minnesota
The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, formerly known as the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America which has jurisdiction over all of Minnesota, except Clay County, which is in the Episco ...
, who wanted women in the priesthood, was concerned that the eleven were hurting the cause of the other women deacons, who numbered over one hundred at the time.
Fallout, women recognized
A proposal to recognize women priests had been narrowly defeated at the triennial
general convention The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate authority ...
of 1973 held in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
.
John M. Allin of Mississippi, the new (as of June) presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, which had 3.1 million members at the time, called an emergency meeting of the
House of Bishops
The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. in Chicago in August 1974.
Jeannette told Allin, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies."
Harold B. Robinson, a bishop in the
diocese of Western New York
The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over the counties of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming in western New York. ...
, and two colleagues set in motion charges accusing the three bishops of breaking their vows and violating church laws. They withdrew charges when the House of Bishops, in a carefully worded resolution that passed 129 to 9 with 8 abstensions, challenged the ordinations and decried the bishops' actions, calling them understandable but "wrong".
But the church was moving in this direction already, and the general convention of 1976 held in Minneapolis voted to open the priesthood to women.
Life as a priest
Jeannette served as a deacon or irregular at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
from 1975 to 1977.
In 1977 the Episcopal Church recognized her ordination. Kathryn Piccard, her granddaughter, who also became an Episcopal priest, was later quoted in ''The New York Times'' as saying, "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do. She had the image of the street-wise old lady."
Jeannette became a volunteer chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital, now United Hospital, and assistant pastor to Denzil Carty at Episcopal Church on Maccubin, both in Saint Paul.
From 1968 until 1981 she was an honorary member of the
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (SWTS) was a seminary of the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, located in Evanston, Illinois.
It ceased operations as a residential seminary granting the Master of Divinity degree in May 201 ...
board of trustees.
Jeannette died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
on May 17, 1981, at the Masonic Memorial Hospital in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, aged 86.
Honors
Jeannette received the
Harmon Trophy
The Harmon Trophy is a set of three international trophies, to be awarded annually to the world's outstanding aviator, aviatrix, and aeronaut (balloon or dirigible). A fourth trophy, the "National Trophy," was awarded from 1926 through 1938 to t ...
in 1934.
The National Aeronautic Association gave her a Certificate of Reward & Performance in 1935. In 1965 she received the first William Randolph Lovelace II Award from the American Astronautical Society (AAS). The University of Minnesota Alumni Association gave her an Outstanding Achievement Award in 1968 and engraved her name on their wall of honor.
Graduate Women in Science
Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), formerly known as Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women in Science (SDE-GWIS), is an international organization for women in science, first established in 1921 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, United State ...
, also known as Sigma Delta Epsilon, made her an honorary member "For Excellence In Scientific Research" in 1971.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Hobart and William Smith Colleges are Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from 45 maj ...
gave her an honorary doctorate. She received the Robert R. Gilruth Award in 1970 from the North
Galveston County
Galveston County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located along the Gulf Coast adjacent to Galveston Bay. As of the 2020 census, the population was 350,682. The county was founded in 1838. The county seat is the City of Galveston, ...
Chamber of Commerce.
She was posthumously inducted into the
International Space Hall of Fame
The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a museum and planetarium complex in Alamogordo, New Mexico dedicated to artifacts and displays related to space flight and the Space Age. It includes the International Space Hall of Fame. The Museum of S ...
in 1998, and she and her husband were nominated to the FAI Ballooning Commission Hall of Fame. The Balloon Federation of America renamed its award the Piccard Memorial Trophy. Pat Donohue wrote ''Solo Flight'', a one-woman play about Jeannette's life. The Bryn Mawr College Library has the Jeanette Ridlon Piccard Book Fund, which provides funds for the purchase of books on the history of religion.
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccard, Jeannette
1895 births
1981 deaths
Aviation pioneers
American balloonists
Aviators from Illinois
Harmon Trophy winners
NASA people
American Episcopal priests
Bryn Mawr College alumni
University of Chicago alumni
University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development alumni
People from Chicago
Clergy from Minneapolis
Women Anglican clergy
Women aviation pioneers
Balloon flight record holders
American aviation record holders
American women aviation record holders
Daughters of the American Revolution people
20th-century American Episcopalians
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
20th-century American clergy