Jenijoy La Belle (November 5, 1943 – January 28, 2025) was an American professor emeritus of English literature at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

. Hired in 1969, she became the first female untenured professor in Caltech history. She is known for her fight to attain

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

in the early '70s, also at Caltech. She was granted tenure in 1979. She retired in 2007.

Early life

La Belle was born to Carlye (née Vieth) and Joy La Belle, a meter reader for Puget Sound Power and Light and raised in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

. La Belle attended Olympia High School. La Belle attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, and received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in English in 1965. In 1969, she received her Ph.D. in English from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, with a dissertation on the poetry of

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954 for his book '' The ...

Career

In 1969, she was hired as assistant professor at Caltech.

Landmark Caltech tenure case

:"There was one woman faculty member -- in Humanities -- named Jenijoy La Belle who came up for tenure and didn't get tenure, although she had a lot more professional achievements than her (male) contemporary assistant professor, who they did tenure." — Glennys Farrar

Olga Taussky-Todd Olga Taussky-Todd (August 30, 1906 – October 7, 1995) was an Austrian and later Czech Americans, Czech-American mathematician. She published more than 300 research papers on algebraic number theory, integral matrices, and Matrix (mathematics), ...

, the first tenured female at Caltech, was a research associate at Caltech from 1957 to 1971, receiving tenure in 1963; later, becoming a full professor in 1971, retiring from teaching in 1977. In 1969, La Belle began teaching at Caltech, making her the first female professor in Caltech history. In 1974, the English department recommended her for tenure. The decision was overturned by the division chair, economic historian Robert Huttenback. After filing a complaint with the

EEOC The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

and with the support of several notable academics, including

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

and

Robert F. Christy Robert Frederick Christy (May 14, 1916 – October 3, 2012) was a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and later astrophysicist who was one of the last surviving people to have worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He briefly ...

, she was finally awarded tenure in 1979.

Works

In 1975, La Belle co-authored ''Night Thoughts or the Complaint and the Consolation Illustrated by William Blake'' with Robert N. Essick. In 1976, she published ''The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke''. In 1977, she again joined with Robert N. Essick to publish ''Flaxman's Illustrations to Homer''. In 1988, she published ''Herself Beheld: The Literature of the Looking Glass''.

''Los Angeles Times'' articles

(partial list) * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-06-me-42613-story.html * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-15-me-4266-story.html * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-03-me-22888-story.html * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-26-me-54740-story.html * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-25-me-23929-story.html * https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-07-me-10296-story.html *https://www.latimes.com/style/la-hm-shake-pg-photogallery.html

Personal life

Jenijoy La Belle siblings include brother Jan Joy LaBell, and sister, Jinx LaBelle Brown. By 2007, La Belle had lived in one of Dr. A. Schutt's 1927 Pasadena art colony bungalows for a decade. La Belle died on January 28, 2025.

External media

:"All men have faces, but many women ''are'' their faces" — Jenijoy La Belle
Jenijoy La Belle
By Caltech Photographer Floyd Clark. September 1969
Jenijoy La Belle
1969 California Institute of Technology Image Archive
Jenijoy La Belle teaches her class in the Millikan Library reflective pool
Caltech . May 1970 in ''Engineering and Science'' (March 1971), "When the weather gets really hot, you’re liable to find almost anything in the water." *Hallett Smit
and Jenijoy La Belle at the Caltech Athenaeum at Hallett Smith's retirement party
Caltech Photographer. May 14, 1971
Jenijoy La Belle and Robert Christy (in chair) in Caltech’s production of the musical "Fiorello"
La Belle plays a chorus girl;

, plays a radio announcer. Caltech. February 1978
Jenijoy La Belle (as chorus girl) in "Fiorello"
and

(playing a gangster) Caltech . February 1978
Jenijoy La Belle speaking about William Blake to alums
at Seminar Day in San Francisco. Caltech Photographer. October 1979
Jenijoy La Belle
Photographer: Greg Gilbert. 1990s Caltech Archives *''Air Talk'
with Jenijoy La Belle and John D. Roberts
19 July 1989 from 6 to 7 PM on KPCC, the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

affiliate of

Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. History Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. It originally o ...

Night of Stars Part 4 Jenijoy La Belle
May 2009 — Olympia High School Alumni via

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https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article25232629.html

References

External links

Jenijoy La Belle bio page
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences,

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Belle, Jenijoy Living people 1943 births California Institute of Technology faculty University of California, San Diego alumni