page_title: Helen Belyea
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Helen Belyea / Personal life
context_page_description: Helen Reynolds Belyea, OC FRSC, was a Canadian geologist best known for her research, in Western Canada, of the Devonian System, a geologic period of the Paleozoic era.
context_section_description: Belyea was also active in mountaineering, skiing, walking, and horseback riding. She was an equestrian and rode her horse to many of her field excursions. She rode in the mountains of Alberta, British Columbia and Great Slave Lake area. She was a member of the Calgary Continuing Arts Association, the Women's League of the Calgary Philharmonic and associate director of the Calgary Zoological Society.  She traveled extensively, especially in France. During one her travels in France she gave many lectures.
  Belyea was an icon for the world of feminism in geology. Although she herself was not a great supporter of feminism, she showed in her actions that she was a women of great stature and one to follow and respect. She was the first women to work with men before the 1970s. People thought, in the 19th century, that women should be home cooking and cleaning for their families, but Belyea was an advocate for wanting to work in the field. She became the first women to work in the field studies, proving to everyone that women are strong enough to carry the heavy samples across coarse terrains.
  She died in Calgary on May 20, 1986 at the age of 73 years.
caption: Map of Western Canada where most of Belyea's research took place.
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