Jenijoy La Belle: A Trailblazer in Academia, A Champion of Literature, and a Legacy That Lives On

We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Jenijoy La Belle, a trailblazing administrative leader, devoted professor, and outspoken advocate for academic integrity and the rights of women. Along a career trajectory marked by keen intelligence, unyielding resolve, and passion for literature, La Belle was the first woman to be hired as a faculty member at Caltech. The indelible contributions she has made to Shakespeare, William Blake, Theodore Roethke, and 17th-century poetry remain attached to scholarship in literature.

Jenijoy La Belle in the 1990s. Credit: Caltech Archives.

Through her courageous battle for tenure, she not only secured her rightful place at Caltech but also became a symbol of perseverance and justice in the academic world. As she reflected on her struggle, she once said during an interview:

I have found myself in a highly charged political atmosphere. I have not attempted to match political talents against those with much more experience in such matters. Rather, I chose to do my work to the best of my ability and meet the stated criteria for gaining tenure. Yet each time I met the requirements, they were immediately raised, or narrowed, just enough so that I could not meet them

Despite the obstacles in her path, La Belle never wavered in her dedication to literature, her students, or the principles of fairness and academic freedom. Her story is one of resilience, brilliance, and an unyielding commitment to the pursuit of knowledge.

A Passion for Literature Born in the Forests of Washington

La Belle teaches in the pool outside Millikan Library (now Caltech Hall). From this photo’s original caption: “When the weather gets really hot, you’re liable to find almost anything in the water.” Credit: Engineering and Science.

Born in 1943 in Olympia, Washington, La Belle grew up surrounded by natural beauty and intellectual curiosity. Her father was a self-taught architect and craftsman who built houses that complemented the green light of surrounding forests, while her mother was an English teacher who instilled in her a love for literature. She was fascinated by the power of words and storytelling from a very young age, memorizing poems and reading books with deep involvement. Her childhood, filled with reading under kerosene lamps and acting out stories with her siblings, laid the foundation for a lifelong devotion to literary exploration. She vividly recalled sitting with her mother and brother under the glow of a kerosene lamp, listening as her mother read aloud:

One of my very earliest memories is of sitting down beside her, with Jan on her other side, under a kerosene lamp because we didn’t have any electricity yet, and she would be reading nursery rhymes and fairy tales. She had a wonderful melodious voice.

Her passion for poetry was ignited when she encountered William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, a collection that would later become a major focus of her scholarship. She also loved Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky”, fairy tales, and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, whom she admired as a young woman because Millay had written the poem “Renascence” when she was just twenty.

I wanted desperately to go to Vassar, and my parents sat me down and said, ‘You have a brother and a sister, and we can either send you to Vassar, or all three of you to college at someplace that we can afford.’ And I wanted to say, ‘Mortgage the house!’ but what could I do?

When still a young student at the University of Washington, she studied under the celebrated poet Theodore Roethke, whose influence would later shape her research. She graduated with a B.A. in English in 1965 and then went on to graduate work at the University of California, San Diego, where she received a Ph.D. in literature in 1968, writing her dissertation on Roethke’s poetic influences.

**Breaking Barriers at Caltech: The First Female Professor **

La Belle, 1969. Credit: Caltech Archives.

Let’s also consider this year and how important this 50% change in the female quota was and let’s try to immerse ourselves in those years and how incredible it could have seemed! Till her death, the year 1969, she entered unchartered territory and became the first woman to be hired in a professorship from Caltech, a traditionally male university that only a year later declared its decision to admit women undergraduate students. She had no idea she was making history until she was summoned to the Caltech News Bureau and informed that she was the first. It was later when on campus, she realized she stood as a lonely female professor from a pool of 208 faculty men. The media quickly sensationalized her appointment, reducing her to a spectacle rather than recognizing her as a scholar of exceptional merit.

I don’t even like to talk about them now because it sounds as if I were saying such stupid things. You know, headlines like, ‘Girl Prof Excites All-Male Campus,’ or, ‘Tall Blonde the Rage at Caltech.’ Here I was, 5 foot 2, mousy hair, so it was all rather silly.

Her presence at Caltech was not just a novelty—it was a shock to many. Some faculty members were welcoming, while others did not know what to make of this brilliant young woman in a field dominated by men.

I found out very soon that there was no storyline to these books. I mean, there was Dick and Jane and Spot the dog, and they had a cat named Puff, and it was very boring. Mama had already read us T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Cats were supposed to be named Rum Tum Tugger, Jellylorum, and Rumpleteazer. Puff? I was supposed to read about Puff?

She was welcomed with both interest and skepticism. The media sensation of her appointment included headlines like “Girl Prof Excites All-Male Campus” and “Tall Blonde the Rage at Caltech”, descriptions that focused on her being a spectacle, not a merit scholar. While she had given in to the media circus at first even appeared on Truth or Consequences soon wearied of shallow attentions and refocused her energies on the things that counted most: teaching and research. Despite the institutional resistance, La Belle developed a strong rapport with her students, who admired her intellect, her humor, and her deep appreciation for literature.

A Tenure Battle That Shook Caltech

Despite her academic achievements and brilliance in teaching, La Belle’s path at Caltech was far from smooth. In 1974, after years of service, she was unanimously recommended for tenure by the tenured English faculty, supported by strong endorsements from external scholars. However, the divisional promotion committee, chaired by Robert Huttenback, overruled this recommendation in a controversial and ultimately unjust decision.

The resultant tenure battle was probably the most well-known case of academic discrimination in the 1970s. With the aid of faculty supporters such as Richard Feynman, Kent Clark, and Hallett Smith, La Belle fought the institutional bias to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After an investigation that was quite extensive, the EEOC concluded in 1977 that indeed, Caltech had conducted gender discrimination by systematically excluding the female group from its tenure ranks.

I must now try to turn my attention to these positive achievements of my career and leave Caltech with a mingled measure of frustration and sorrow.

With the support of Hollywood mogul and Caltech trustee Lew Wasserman, a landmark agreement was reached. La Belle returned to Caltech in 1977 as an associate professor, and in 1979, she was granted tenure, becoming for a time the only tenured woman on the faculty.

A Scholar of Poetry and Visual Art

Robert Oliver and La Belle at Commencement, June 1979. Credit: Caltech Archives.

Beyond her historic fight for equality, La Belle was an accomplished and widely respected scholar. Her book, The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke, published by Princeton University Press, remains an essential study of Roethke’s poetic influences. She also conducted groundbreaking research on William Blake, particularly his visual and poetic artistry, co-authoring books with the renowned scholar Robert N. Essick.

Her research extended into 17th-century poetry and Shakespeare, where she made significant contributions to the study of Lady Macbeth’s psychological state, the literary echoes in Roethke’s work, and the role of women in early modern literature. Her book Herself Beheld: The Literature of the Looking Glass explored the relationship between women and their reflections, a topic that sparked both admiration and debate within feminist literary circles. During an interview, she was asked what was she teaching and it is funny to think that the Humanities curriculum at Caltech seemed to be so poor …but somehow special

• I was teaching everything. I would simply start with Dante and would just go through the canon for an entire year. One class was taught through genre, so tragedy and comedy. We’d start with Oedipus and Antigone, Euripides, and so on, and go on up to Beckett. And many of those I had certainly not taught before. It was wonderful. I suppose you never learn as much about things as when you are teaching. I love to teach Shakespeare, and I love to teach almost everything I choose to teach, except in those days I was also assigned what to teach. I would never have taught Hobbes’s Leviathan on my own*

A Life Dedicated to Literature and Teaching

La Belle’s scholarship was rich and varied, with major contributions in:

• Shakespeare: She co-taught a legendary Shakespeare and Theater Arts course, bringing the Bard’s work to life on stage.
• William Blake: Her research explored Blake’s visual and poetic artistry, co-authoring books with Robert N. Essick.
• Theodore Roethke: Her book, The Echoing Wood of Theodore Roethke, remains a foundational text in modern poetry studies.
• Feminist Literary Criticism: Her book Herself Beheld examined the relationship between women and their reflections, sparking debates in feminist circles.

For over four decades, La Belle passionately taught Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, and literary analysis to generations of Caltech students, many of whom entered her classroom with little prior exposure to literature. Her dynamic teaching style and deep engagement with texts transformed the way students approached poetry and drama, making Shakespeare accessible even to the most science-focused minds.

In collaboration with theater director Shirley Marneus, La Belle co-taught Shakespeare courses that combined literary analysis with theatrical production, giving students a hands-on experience of the Bard’s works. These classes culminated in remarkable performances of plays including Henry V, Richard III, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night, allowing students to embody Shakespeare’s language both intellectually and physically.

Her students, many of whom went on to careers in science, engineering, and technology, often credited her with opening their minds to the beauty and power of literature.

A Legacy That Endures

La Belle on an episode of a morning news show, April 1970. Credit: Caltech Archives.

Jenijoy La Belle was a force for Caltech, the humanities, and literary scholarship. As one of the very first women on the faculty at Caltech, she blazed a path for future generations of women scholars to follow. Her tenacity in the face of discrimination forced institutional changes that would benefit countless women in the years to come.

She was, nonetheless, far more than a trailblazer: an incisive thinker, a superb writer, and an unforgettable teacher; her scholarship has remained seminal to poetry and literature; and through her mentorship and advocacy, she remains alive in the hearts of all whose lives she has touched.

We mourn her passing, and we celebrate a life so well-lived, knowing that her words, wisdom, and the courage to speak them will continue to reverberate in these halls and in the annals of literature.

Rest in peace, Professor La Belle. Like the great works you taught, your story shall never be forgotten.

“You have had enemies you can be proud of.” – Kent Clark