Born: 5 January 1895, United States
Died: 17 May 1981
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Jeannette Ridlon
The following is republished from New Jersey Women’s History, in line with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Jeannette Ridlon Piccard (1895-1981) of Sparta was the first woman to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. Her religious journey began at Bryn Mawr College, where Piccard spoke of her aspiration to become a priest to the college president at the time. While many others had dissuaded her from setting her sights on an occupation not open to women at that time, President Thomas encouraged Piccard to prepare for the priesthood through studies in philosophy and psychology.
In 1967, Piccard authored a motion which stated that women should be allowed to serve as lay readers in worship services on an equal basis with men. The motion was instituted as an Episcopal Church law. Four years later, in 1971, the 76-year-old Piccard was ordained as a deacon. The next step, which was ordination as a priest, was still closed to women. Despite this setback, Piccard prepared for the priesthood by attending General Theological Seminary in New York. Her hard work paid off in 1974 when Piccard became the first woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. At 79, she was the oldest of the eleven women ordained that day. Women were still not allowed to become priests so Piccard’s ordination was not recognized by the Episcopal Church until 1977.
Piccard also made history when she, alongside husband Jean Piccard, piloted a balloon nearly 58,000 feet over Lake Erie. Piccard used the 1934 flight to study the effects of cosmic rays in the stratosphere. She was consequently the first woman to enter space, and hers was the first successful stratospheric flight made through a layer of clouds with a balloon that remained under control for the entire flight. In 1963 she became an adviser to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA).
References:
Burstyn, Joan N. 1990. “Jeannette Ridlon Piccard”. Past and Promise, Lives of New Jersey Women. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54795071
Hill, Sheryl K. 2009. “Until I have won” vestiges of coverture and the invisibility of women in the twentieth century: a biography of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/476770647
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
1895, Jan. 5 Born, Chicago, Illinois
1918 A.B., Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
1919 M.A., organic chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
1919 Married Jean Felix Piccard
1934 Licensed spherical balloon pilot, National Aeronautic Association. Piloted aerostat into stratosphere with Jean Piccard to study cosmic rays, Ford Airport, Dearborn, Mich.
1942 Ph.D., education, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
1943 Executive secretary, housing section, Minnesota Office of Civil Defense
1947 Aeronautical consultant, General Mills, Inc.
1961-1965 President, board of directors, St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School, St. Paul, Minn.
1964-1970 Consultant to director, Manned Spacecraft Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1968-1981 Honorary member, board of trustees, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.
1971 Ordained deacon, Episcopal Church. Curate, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul, Minn.
1973 Certificate of Study, General Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y.
1974 “Irregular” ordination as priest, Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pa.
1977 Ordination as priest officially recognized by Episcopal Church
1981, May 17 Died, Minneapolis, Minn.