# Jenijoy La Belle

Jenijoy La Belle (November 5, 1943 – January 28, 2025) was an American professor emeritus of English literature at California Institute of Technology. Hired in 1969, she became the first female untenured professor in Caltech history. She is known for her fight to attain tenure 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.
La Belle attended Olympia High School. La Belle attended the University of Washington in Seattle, and received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1965. In 1969, she received her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, San Diego, with a dissertation on the poetry of Theodore Roethke.

## 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, 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 and with the support of several notable academics, including Richard Feynman and Robert F. Christy, 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 Smith 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; Robert F. Christy, plays a radio announcer. Caltech. February 1978
* Jenijoy La Belle (as chorus girl) in "Fiorello". and Richard Feynman (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 affiliate of Pasadena City College
* Night of Stars Part 4 Jenijoy La Belle May 2009 — Olympia High School Alumni via YouTube