Jeannette Ridlon Piccard ( ; January 5, 1895 – May 17, 1981) was an American high-altitude balloonist, and in later life an Episcopal priest, one of the Philadelphia Eleven. She held the women's altitude record for nearly three decades, and according to several contemporaneous accounts was regarded as the first woman in space.Shayler & Moule, pp. 12, 25–26
Piccard was the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U.S., and the first woman to fly to the stratosphere. Accompanied by her husband, Jean—a member of the Piccard family of balloonists and the twin brother of Auguste Piccard—she reached a height of during a record-breaking flight over Lake Erie on October 23, 1934, retaining control of the balloon for the entire flight. After her husband's death in 1963, she worked as a consultant to the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center for several years, talking to the public about NASA's work, and was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998.
From the late 1960s onwards, Piccard returned to her childhood interest in religion. She was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1971, and on July 29, 1974, became one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women to be ordained priests—though the ordinations were regarded as irregular, performed by bishops who had retired or resigned.The path to priesthood . . . "The Philadelphia Eleven" , Diocese of Easton, accessed February 25, 2010. Piccard was the first of the women to be ordained that day, because at 79 she was the oldest, and because she was fulfilling an ambition she had had since she was 11 years old. When asked by Bishop John Allin, the head of the church, not to proceed with the ceremony, she is said to have told him, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies." In September 1976, the church voted to allow women into the priesthood, and Piccard served as a priest in Saint Paul, Minnesota, until she died at the age of 86.The Episcopal Handbook, Church Publishing Inc., 2008, p. 111. One of her granddaughters, Kathryn Piccard, also an Episcopal priest, said of her: "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do. She had the image of the street-wise old lady."
Early life and education Born on January 5, 1895, in Chicago, Illinois, Piccard was one of nine children born to Emily Caroline (Robinson) and John Frederick Ridlon, who was president of the American Orthopaedic Association. She had a lifelong interest in science and religion. When she was 11, her mother asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Piccard's reply—"a priest"—sent her mother running out of the room in tears.
Piccard studied philosophy and psychology at Bryn Mawr College, where in 1916 she wrote an essay titled "Should Women Be Admitted to the Priesthood of the Anglican Church?" She received her bachelor's degree in 1918 and went on to study organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, receiving her master's degree in 1919. That same year she met and married Jean Felix Piccard, who was teaching at the university.
Piccard was the mother of a house full of boys. Robert R. Gilruth, one of her students and collaborators, said later in his oral history that he remembered a breakfast he had with the Piccards in a St. Cloud, Minnesota hotel before a balloon launching, "I don't know how many there were. It seems like there was a dozen. ... I remember the youngest one took the corn flake box and dumped it on his father's head. Of course, Piccard just brushed it off his head and said, 'No, no. "He was very gentle. He loved his boys, and he thought boys would be boys, I guess." The Piccards had three sons of their own, John, Paul, and Donald (who would become a famous balloonist and ballooning innovator in his own right), as well as foster children. The Piccard family archive in the Library of Congress mentions correspondence from foster children whom the Piccards took in, although nothing else seems to be known about them.
The Piccards taught at the University of Lausanne from 1919 to 1926. In 1926 they returned to the United States, where Jean Piccard taught organic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The couple lived in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania before settling in Minneapolis in 1936 when Jean Piccard joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota. Jeanette Piccard received a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota in 1942, and a certificate of study from the General Theological Seminary in 1973.
Gilruth made a point of describing Piccard in his oral history. He said, "She was very bright, had her own doctor's degree, and was at least half of the brains of that family, technical as well as otherwise. ... She was always in the room when he was lecturing or otherwise, almost always. She was something. She was good." David DeVorkin, curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, wrote a history of manned scientific ballooning.DeVorkin, copyright page In DeVorkin's view, the Piccards' "entrepreneurship and subsequent success" in ballooning was due to "their enormous persistence ... and considerable confidence, pluck, and luck".DeVorkin, pp. 108–109
Stratosphere flight Planning and pilot's license After Thomas G. W. Settle's record flight in the Piccards' Century of Progress, the balloon was again returned to the Piccards, who decided to fly it to the stratosphere on their own. Jean would concentrate on the science, while Jeannette would pilot the balloon. DeVorkin wrote that, "Energetic and forceful, she seemed to have a better chance of obtaining a pilot's license than Jean, who was preoccupied with restoring the gondola and balloon and convincing scientists to provide instruments to fly".DeVorkin, p. 109 She studied at Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, under Edward J. Hill, a balloonist and Gordon Bennett Cup winner, who agreed to serve as flight director for the Piccards' planned stratospheric flight.DeVorkin, p. 110. and Ryan, p. 56 Henry Ford offered the use of his hangar and brought Orville Wright (with his brother Wilbur, inventor of the airplane and first human to fly a heavier-than-air powered aircraft) to observe a flight of Jeannette's in 1933. Her son Don was a crew member that day and shook hands with Wright, "I was a little kid and he [paid] attention to me." On June 16, 1934, Jeannette flew her first solo flight. Later that year, the National Aeronautic Association made her the first woman licensed balloon pilot in the U.S. Jeannette had a sense of humor Auguste wrote to Jean in June 1934, "Hopefully you will make your flight ahead of other competitors. It would be nice, if the name of Piccard through Jeannette, would once more be placed on the record list of the F.A.I."DeVorkin, pp. 109, 127
When she was interviewed near the end of her life, and asked why she had not hired a pilot and why she had decided to become a pilot herself, Jeannette replied, "How much loyalty can you count on from someone you hire?" The Piccards were a team; Jeannette joked that "I didn't go up with him, he went up with me."Gayla Marty, "Heaven and Earth: A Pioneer [Jeannette Piccard] in Space and Religion Was Called by Her Care for the Human Condition," Bell Museum University of Minnesota, July 31, 2019, https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/blog/heaven-earth/. Her husband needed a pilot, and she became one. When she was asked if she had parachute training, Jeannette said, "No ... if, on the first time you jump, you don't succeed, there's no use trying again."
Search for funding High altitude ballooning was a dangerous undertaking, partly because human lungs cannot function unaided over , and partly because the lifting gas used, hydrogen, is flammable.Matsen, p. 105. and Jeannette said later that, "The National Geographic Society would have nothing to do with sending a woman—a mother—in a balloon into danger". Longtime Piccard family backer Goodyear was reluctant to support their flight. Dow Chemical asked that their trade names and logo be removed from publicity and from the Century of Progress balloon.
Gilruth said, "I remember that Piccard was very, very hurt by the National Geographic that would not give them a dime. ... Both he and Jeanette said that they were discriminated against by the National Geographic. That's not a good word. They were not aided in any way by the National Geographic, and they felt it was not really warranted. They felt they should have gotten some help from them. ... [He] didn't say why, but they certainly didn't feel they'd been handled fairly." The Piccards struggled to gain financial support until the Grigsby-Grunow Radio Company advanced them several thousand dollars. The Detroit Aero Club and People's Outfitting Company also backed them. To supplement their sponsorship, Jeannette designed and sold commemorative stamps and souvenir programs and folders. She also raised a good deal of money by selling their story in press releases to the North American Newspaper Alliance.DeVorkin, p. 110
Flight
Forty-five thousand spectators came to see the Piccards off on October 23, 1934, at 6:51 am, about two hours behind schedule. Jeannette piloted the reconditioned Century of Progress, and the couple took along their pet turtle, Fleur de Lys. After a brief pre-launch ceremony, during which the Piccards received a bouquet from their sons and a small band played The Star-Spangled Banner, they lifted off from Ford Airport, assisted by airmen on the ground who pushed the gondola.Ryan, p. 56 Jean changed the flight path and shortened the flight time because of cloudy skies, which reduced the amount of scientific work they were able to do. Jeannette made "unplanned and impulsive maneuvres" and the Piccards failed to make complete records of their actions during the flight.DeVorkin, p. 123 The newspaper alliance had offered to pay them 1,000 if they broke the altitude record, so they jettisoned all of their sandbags, attempting to go higher. They reached or about up, travelled for eight hours on a journey over Lake Erie, and landed about away from Dearborn, near Cadiz, Ohio. She had to choose a landing on elm trees, realizing that meant the Century of Progress would never fly again. The balloon separated from the gondola and was ripped. Jean sustained small fractures to his ribs, left foot, and ankle. According to Jeannette's description in Time magazine: "What a mess! I wanted to land on the White House lawn."
Legacy
Piccard's flight set the women's altitude record, and held it for 29 years, until Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times solo in the Soviet Union's Vostok 6. According to the editors of Flying magazine, in their book Sport Flying, published by Ziff-Davis in 1976, Piccard was "the first woman in space, a claim allowed even by Valentina Tereshkova."Editors of Flying magazine, p. 153 She was also the first woman to pilot a flight to the stratosphere, and according to her obituary in The New York Times, the first person to do so through a layer of clouds.
Later life, death of Jean Piccard