- Jeannette Piccard
Jeannette Ridlon Piccard (January 5, 1895 – May 17, 1981) was an American teacher, scientist, priest, and aeronaut who was a pioneer of balloon flight. A member of the famed
Piccard family of balloonists and of the International Space Hall of Fame, she was the first licensed female balloon pilot, the first woman to fly to thestratosphere , and a speaker forNASA . Her 1934 flight held the women's altitude record for three decades. Called a woman of causes and irrepressible, Piccard is remembered as one of the "Philadelphia Eleven", the first women to be ordained Episcopalian priests.Family and education
Born in
Chicago, Illinois , Piccard was the daughter of Dr. John Ridlon, a noted orthopedic surgeon atNorthwestern University , and Emily Ridlon,cite web| author= Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.| title= The Piccard Family Papers, Register. Prepared by Warren Ohrville and Joseph Sullivan et al. 1995| date= 1470-1983| url= http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms998008| accessdate= 2007-01-31] who had nine children. Piccard's identical twin, Beatrix, died at the age of three. Piccard held a lifelong interest in science and religion. Her answer at a young age to her mother's question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was shocking for the time — "a priest."cite web| author= Waggoner, Walter| title= Rev. Jeannette Piccard Dies at 86; Scientist Entered Seminary in '70| publisher= The New York Times| date= May 19, 1981| url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00617FB3F5C0C7A8DDDAC0894D9484D81| accessdate= 2007-01-28] She studied philosophy and psychology atBryn Mawr College and received her bachelor's degree in 1918. At Bryn Mawr in 1916 she wrote an essay, "Should Women Be Admitted to the Priesthood of the Anglican Church?" Piccard then studiedorganic chemistry at theUniversity of Chicago , where in 1919 she received her master's, and met and married Jean Felix Piccard who was teaching there. A family of boys, the Piccards had three sons, John, Paul and Donald, as well as foster children. During the 1980s,Gene Roddenberry most likely named CaptainJean-Luc Picard in "" for one or both of the twin brothersAuguste Piccard and Jean Felix Piccard, and derived Jean-Luc from her husband's name.cite web| author= University of California et al. [and informal sources on Jean Piccard talk page] | title= Living With A Star: 3: Balloon/Rocket Mission: Scientific Ballooning| date= 2003| url= http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/LWS_GEMS/3/scien.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27] cite web| author= Piccard, Elizabeth via National Public Radio| title= Talk of the Nation: Science on Stage| date= January 23, 2004| url= http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1614132| accessdate= 2007-01-29]The Piccards taught at the
University of Lausanne from 1919–1926. They returned to the United States when Jean Piccard took positions there, and lived inNew Jersey ,Massachusetts ,Delaware andPennsylvania . They moved toMinneapolis, Minnesota in 1936 when he joined the faculty of theUniversity of Minnesota , where Piccard was present for many of his lectures.cite web| author= Gilruth, Dr. Robert| title= NASM Oral History Project, Gilruth #2| publisher= Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum| date= May 14, 1986| url= http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/TRANSCPT/GILRUTH2.HTM| accessdate= 2007-01-27] She received a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota in 1942, and a certificate of study from theGeneral Theological Seminary in 1973.World's Fair 1933
Piccard made her famous flight in the third and final voyage of the "Century of Progress" which she was the only Piccard to fly. The balloon was conceived for the World's Fair in 1933, held in Chicago to celebrate the city's centennial. It was the largest balloon in the world, convert|105|ft|m wide, and convert|600000|cuft|m3 that took 700
hydrogen cylinders to fill.cite web| author= Unknown author| title= To Leave the Earth| publisher= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| date= undated| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-04.PDF| accessdate= 2007-01-26]The Piccard family was more interested in science at high altitudes and in flying for the joy of it than in setting records. But competition to reach the
stratosphere by balloon was in full force during the 1920s and 1930s. Auguste Piccard's flights reached 51,783 and convert|53152|ft|m during 1931 and 1932, altitude records soon broken by Prokofiev with Birnbaum and Godunov in theSoviet Union in 1933.cite web| author= Fédération Aéronautique Internationale| title= Commission Internationale d'Aérostation (CIA) Notable Flights and Achievements Part 6, 1926-1950| publisher= via Hans Åkerstedt and Svenska Ballongfederationen| date= March 2004| url= http://www.ballong.org/peter/jesper/cia/report.php?period=06&title=Part%206,%201926-1950| accessdate= 2007-01-25] cite web| author= Voss, Linda| title= "Lighter Than Air", The Race to the Stratosphere| publisher= US Centennial of Flight Commission| date= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/race_to_strato/LTA11.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-26]The "Century of Progress" was built for Jean Piccard who planned to fly it. Dow Chemical constructed the gondola designed by Auguste and Jean Piccard, Karl Arnsteincite web| author= Robert Rechs| title= Who's Who of Ballooning - A| date= November 21, 1983| url= http://www.ballooninghistory.com/whoswho/who'swho-a.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27] of Goodyear built the balloon of rubberized cloth and
Union Carbide provided the hydrogen. The National Broadcasting Company and the "Chicago Daily News " were sponsors, and newspapers publicized the event. Jean and Jeannette Piccard were to be given the balloon when the exhibition flight was completed.Jean and/or Jeannette Piccard were reportedcite web| author= US Centennial of Flight Commission| title= Jean Piccard and his wife...| date= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/science-I/LTA14G2.htm| accessdate= 2007-02-01] to have flown the balloon for the exhibition, but this was not to be. The US Navy borrowed the balloon and Lt. Cmdr. Thomas (Tex) G. W. Settle made the flight because he was a certificated pilot. 40,000 people came to see his flight that began before dawn on August 4, 1933. The centennial commission and Navy presented seven hours of ceremonies and parades at
Soldier Field while the balloon was prepared, dramatically under searchlights. A gas release valve malfunctioned and the flight was aborted shortly after takeoff.cite web| author= "Time"| title= Sailing Storm Trooper (p. 3)| date= August 14, 1933| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745918-3,00.html| accessdate= 2007-01-31]Naval Historical Center accounts omit the Piccards, but the Piccards then owned the "Century of Progress". Although the Navy credits the Marines, it was Jeannette Piccard and thirty or forty men hired by the Museum of Science and Industry who rescued and dried out the "Century of Progress" after the aborted flight spread the balloon across Burlington & Quincy railroad tracks in downtown Chicago. Years laterDon Piccard documented the rescue for the museum, where the gondola is now on permanent loan and on exhibit.cite web| author= Museum of Science and Industry| title= The Piccard Gondola| date= 2003| url= http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/transport/piccard.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27]The armed forces again decided to use the balloon, and sponsored by the Army Air Corps and
National Geographic Society , Settle with Maj. Chester L. Fordney of the US Marine Corps flew to convert|61237|ft|m for a new altitude record.cite web| author= "Time"| title= Settle Up| date= November 27, 1933| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746391,00.html| accessdate= 2007-01-31] cite web| author= Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)| title= Balloon World Records, Database ID 10645| date= Updated daily| url= http://records.fai.org/balloons/history.asp?id1=A-8th&id2=1&id3=1| accessdate= 2007-02-03] Fruit flies were to fly for a US Department of Agriculture study of geneticmutation but died during flight delays. A research team put instruments for eleven experiments aboard — two from the University of Chicago'sArthur Compton andRobert Millikan to measure or observe cosmic rays, one for polarized light and one for studying theozone layer . Compton, said to be disillusioned with balloon readings, published a summary of the research in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".cite web| author= Compton, Arthur H., Ryerson Physical Laboratory, University of Chicago| title= Scientific Work in the "Century of Progress" Stratosphere Balloon| date= 1934 January; 20(1): 79–81| publisher= Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences via US NIH PubMed Central (PMC)| url= http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1076343| accessdate= 2007-02-01] Millikan, pleased with the results from the self-recording electroscope, published with Bowen and Neher in "Physical Review". The Navy and Marines then returned the balloon to the Piccards.cite web| author= Bowen, I. S. and Millikan, R. A. and Neher, H. Victor| title= A very high altitude survey of the effect of latitude upon cosmic-ray intensities - and an attempt at a general interpretation of cosmic-ray phenomena| publisher= Physical Review, 46 (8). pp. 641-652. ISSN 0031-899X| date= 1934| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882571,00.html| accessdate= 2007-02-01]Pilot's license
Jean and Jeannette Piccard planned a flight to the stratosphere, deciding he would concentrate on science and she would be pilot. Piccard studied under Edward J. Hill, a noted balloonist and
Gordon Bennett Cup winner who was based at Ford Airport inDearborn, Michigan .cite web| author= Robert Rechs| title= Who's Who of Ballooning - Hes-Hy| date= November 21, 1983| url= http://www.ballooninghistory.com/whoswho/who'swho-h2.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27]Henry Ford wanted them to succeed, provided use of his hangar, and brought Orville Wright to observe a flight that year.cite web| author= Stekel, Peter| publisher= Balloon Life Magazine| title= Don Piccard - 50 Years of Ballooning Memories| date= August 1997| url= http://www.balloonlife.com/9707/piccard.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-26] On June 16, 1934, Piccard flew her first solo flight and later that year theNational Aeronautic Association licensed Piccard, making her the first woman spherical balloon pilot.cite web| author= Oakes, Claudia M.| title= United States Women in Aviation: 1930-1939| publisher= Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space| date= 1985| url= http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/AirSpace/text/SSAS-0006.txt| accessdate= 2007-01-27]Ballooning was a dangerous undertaking, partly because human lungs cannot function unaided over something between 40,000 and convert|50000|ft|m, and partly because hydrogen then used as a lifting gas is highly flammable. Hawthorne Gray of the US Army was a skilled balloonist who in 1927 was the first to reach the stratosphere. Gray had tested clothing, instrumentation and oxygen delivery in three flights that year, but he died of hypoxia when his oxygen ran out during descent. During January 1934, the crew of Fedoseenko, Vasienko and Usyskin had died in the Soviet Union when their gondola separated from their balloon. The National Geographic Society refused to back a flight piloted by a mother. Longtime Piccard family backer Goodyear was reluctant to lend their support to a female pilot. Dow Chemical asked that their trade names and logo be removed from publicity and the "Century of Progress" balloon. The Piccards were able to obtain financing from the Grigsby-Grunow radio company, the People's Outfitting Company and Henry Ford who lent his hangar as a launch site.
tratosphere flight
45,000 spectators came to see them go, about two hours behind schedule on October 23, 1934, at 6:51 a.m. Piccard piloted Jean Piccard, herself and their pet turtle, Fleur de Lys, in the reconditioned "Century of Progress". They lifted off from Ford Airport, with help from airmen on the ground who pushed the gondola. They reached convert|57579|ft|m or about convert|10.9|mi|km up, travelled eight hours total in a journey over
Lake Erie and landed about convert|300|mi|km away from Dearborn nearCadiz, Ohio . Piccard had to choose a landing on elm trees rather than on a farmhouse and was saddened,cite web| author= US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration| title= Women in Transportation: Changing America's History Reference Materials| date= March 1998| url= http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/wmntrans2.pdf| accessdate= 2007-02-03] knowing that the "Century of Progress" would never fly again. The balloon had separated from the gondola and was ripped, according to Piccard's description in "Time" magazine, "What a mess! I wanted to land on theWhite House lawn."cite web| author= "Time"| title= Stunts Aloft| date= November 5, 1934| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882571,00.html| accessdate= 2007-02-01] Piccard maintained control of the balloon for the entire flight, a first in US history, and was the first to successfully pilot a flight to the stratosphere through a layer of clouds. She became famous as the first woman to reach the stratosphere. Her flight set the women's altitude record, and held it for twenty nine years, until 1963 whenValentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in the Soviet Union'sVostok 6 .Piccard observed that the liquid oxygen stopped vaporizing as the balloon descended after the cabin doors were opened. Realizing that this would be fatal for a fighter pilot, Jean Piccard analyzed the phenomenon and created the liquid oxygen convertor.cite web| author= US Centennial of Flight Commission| title= Jean Piccard| date= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Jean_Piccard/DI65.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27] Jean Piccard developed a frost-free window, that was used on this flight and later by the Navy and Air Force in the
B-24 Liberator orB-26 Marauder . Jean Piccard usedblasting cap s and TNT for releasing the balloon at launch and for remote release of external ballast from inside the sealed cabin. This was the first use ofpyrotechnics for remote-controlled actuating devices inaircraft , an unpopular, revolutionary idea at the time. LaterRobert R. Gilruth , who was one of Jean Piccard's students and collaborators and became the director of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, approved and used them inspacecraft .cite web| author= Piccard, Don| title= Balloon Information Resources: The Beginning| date= 2005| url= via Web site marked private.| accessdate= 2007-01-28] cite web| author= Kraft, Christopher Jr.| title= Robert R. Gilruth in "Biographical Memoirs" V.84 92-111| publisher= National Academy of Sciences| date= 2004| url= http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10992&page=92| accessdate= 2007-01-30] Also aboard the balloon werepostage stamps for collectors and two instruments for studying cosmic radiation — one to study the bursting of lead atoms, and Millikan's 540 poundionization chamber .cite web| author= Voss, Linda, (editor's note: Minor correction byDon Piccard 2007-01-28 to change Voss's 700 pounds to 540 pounds as printed in a manifest, which lists other instruments over 100 pounds each)| title= "Lighter Than Air", Scientific Research Using Balloons in the First Part of the Twentieth Century| publisher= US Centennial of Flight Commission| date= 2003| url= http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/science-I/LTA14.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27]Plastic balloons
In 1935 and 1936, to reduce weight and thus enabling a balloon to reach higher altitudes,
plastic balloon construction began independently by Max Cosyns in Belgium, Eric Regener in Germany, and Thomas H. Johnson and Jean Piccard, then at theFranklin Institute Bartol Research Foundation inSwarthmore, Pennsylvania . Johnson suggestedcellophane to Jean Piccard.cite web| author= Winker, J. A., via sample page| title= Scientific ballooning, past and present| publisher= American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics| date= 1986| url= http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=406&gTable=mtgpaper&gID=92979| accessdate= 2007-01-28]Development continued in Swarthmore and began in Minneapolis when the Piccards moved to the University of Minnesota. Jean Piccard designed and in 1936 flew a cellophane balloon built by his students. The balloon was unmanned, convert|25|ft|m wide, and made of tapered convert|33|ft|m|sing=on gores and one-inch
3M Scotch transparent tape. Jean Barnhill, Harold Larson and Lloyd Schumacher cut the gores that fit together like an "orange peel." Harold Hatlestad built the radio equipment and Robert Silliman built the telemeter that sent temperature and pressure data back. Photos show Piccard present at the launch. During the flight, Robert Hatch and Silliman maintained radio contact from a station on the roof of the university armory until the radio's battery froze from insufficient insulation.cite web| author= Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) Department| publisher= University of Minnesota| title= Some Notable Early Faculty Members| date= July 23, 2004| url= http://www.aem.umn.edu/info/history/03_NotableFaculty.shtml| accessdate= 2007-01-27] The balloon floated at convert|50000|ft|m, and in ten hours traveled over convert|600|mi|km to nearHuntsville, Arkansas .Piccard is credited with co-inventing the plastic balloon in 1936. The University of Minnesota physics department, now the School of Physics and Astronomy, made a final report on their high altitude research program for the US Navy. The report archived in the university libraries special collection is dedicated on the flyleaf to Jean and Jeannette Piccard as "inventors of the plastic balloon" and signed by the balloon scientists of the day.cite web| author= Robert Rechs| title= Who's Who of Ballooning - P| date= November 21, 1983| url= http://www.ballooninghistory.com/whoswho/who'swho-p.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27]
Cluster balloons
Developed with John Ackerman of the University of Minnesota and piloted by Jean Piccard in 1937 in
Rochester, Minnesota , the first multi-celled balloon was called "The Pleiades" and was made of 98 latex rubber balloons. In a letter to Robert Gray of the Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. later published in "Time" magazine, Piccard describes how he broke balloons with a hunting knife and revolver to control his descent. A TNT charge released the cluster as he expected but sent burning excelsior down that destroyed the first "Pleiades". He suggested to Gray that rock wool in place of excelsior would prevent similar accidents in the future.cite web| author= Piccard, Jean via Robert Gray| title= Egg Shell Landing| publisher= Time| date= August 16, 1937| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770771,00.html?promoid=googlep| accessdate= 2007-01-27]Balloon research stopped for the most part during
World War II .cite web| author= Goebel, Greg| title= A Short History Of Balloons & Ballooning: 3.0 The Stratosphere Expeditions| date= July 1, 2006| url= http://www.vectorsite.net/avbloon_3.html| accessdate= 2007-02-01] During 1943 Piccard was briefly a secretary at the housing section of the MinnesotaOffice of Civil Defense .In February 1946 with
Otto C. Winzen , Jean Piccard proposed manned flight to the US Navy using clustered balloons made of thin plastic. In June the Office of Naval Research approved "Project Helios" and that yearGeneral Mills and the University of Minnesota contracted to build a cluster of 100polyethylene balloons for atmospheric research.cite web| author= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| title= Navy in Space Chronology, 1945 - 1981| date= July 24, 2003| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq124-1.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-27] Piccard worked for General Mills on "Project Helios" and invented the reefing sleeve for control of the thin plastic during inflation. "Helios" was designed to reach convert|100000|ft|m for ten hours with a payload of instruments.cite web| author= Unknown author| title= Manned| publisher= US Department of the Navy - Navy Historical Center| date= undated| url= http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-11.PDF| accessdate= 2007-01-26]Jean Piccard helped Winzen design the Skyhook polyethylene balloons that replaced "Project Helios" in 1947. Skyhook balloons were used unmanned for atmospheric research by the Navy and for manned flights by the US Air Force. Later Jean Piccard developed electronics for emptying ballast bags. Piccard's involvement in these projects is less well documented. She was probably not so much known as an inventor but she was recognized by scientists of the era as a researcher and equal, who worked closely with her husband, as well as with their children.cite web| author= University of Minnesota Archives| title= Jean Felix Piccard Papers| date= 2002| url= http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/uarc00475.xml| accessdate= 2007-01-24] Gilruth considered her, "at least half the brains in the family."
Piccard later flew
helium andhot air balloon s, the former with Don Piccard in 1964.Jean Piccard died in 1963. Gilruth asked Piccard to work as a consultant at NASA.cite web| author= NASA MSC| title= Dr. Jeannette Piccard Appointed NASA Consultant at MSC, in 1964 News Releases (PDF)| date= April 9, 1964| url= http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/83116main_1964.pdf| accessdate= 2007-01-30] She accepted and lived in a house in Houston she shared with another woman. Piccard spoke to groups at NASA about the space progam from 1964 to 1970, when
Project Apollo was created andApollo 11 made the first mannedMoon landing in 1969. Gilruth then noticed a shift in Piccard's interests, away from space and towards religion.Episcopal priest
In 1971, one year after the Episcopal Church admitted female deacons, Piccard was ordained a deacon, and in 1974, under remarkable circumstances, she was ordained a priest. In
Philadelphia at the Church of the Advocate, three retired bishops – Daniel Corrigan, former church head of domestic missions, Robert L. De Witt of thediocese of Pennsylvania, and Edward Randolph Welles II of the diocese of West Missouri – ordained eleven women priests, cheered by a large congregation. A fourth bishop, José Antonio Ramos ofCosta Rica , was there but was out of his jurisdiction. All eleven women risked suspension as deacons and the four bishops "could be suspended or deposed by a church trial court" for ignoring a church canon prohibiting retired bishops from performing "episcopal acts" unless asked by a local bishop. Five Episcopal priests objected at the point in the service when Corrigan asked if there was "any impediment" to the ordinations, one calling the ordinations perversions and one calling them unlawful and "schismatical."cite web| author= "Time"| title= The Women's Rebellion| date= August 12, 1974| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908650,00.html| accessdate= 2007-01-29]Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Jacqueline Means, Marie Moorefield Fleisher, Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Martha Swanson and Nancy Hatch Wittig were the eleven ordinands.cite web| author= Diocese of Easton| title= The path to priesthood... "The Philadelphia Eleven"| date= April 21, 2006| url= http://www.dioceseofeaston.org/Philadelphia%20eleven.html| accessdate= 2007-01-29] Piccard was presented at the ordination by her son Paul Piccard. Another of the group, who were known as "irregulars" and sometimes called the "Philadelphia Eleven", Carter Heyward became the 1974 "Ms." magazine Woman of the Year. Suzanne Hiatt later said, "In retrospect, to have been ordained 'irregularly' is the only way for women to have done it. Cheek, Heyward and Piccard joined in a consecration and Piccard gave the absolution in a celebration of the
eucharist at Riverside Church in Manhattan in November. Philip McNairy of the diocese of Minnesota who wanted women in the priesthood was concerned that the eleven were hurting the cause of the other women deacons, who numbered over one hundred at the time.cite web| author= "Time"| title= Celebration of Defiance| date= November 11, 1974| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911521,00.html| accessdate= 2007-02-01]John M. Allin of Mississippi, the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, which had 3.1 million members at the time, called an emergency meeting of the
House of Bishops in Chicago. Harold B. Robinson, diocese of Western New York, and two colleagues set in motion charges accusing the three bishops of breaking their vows and violating church laws. They withdrew charges when the House of Bishops, in a carefully worded resolution that passed 129 to 9 with 8 abstensions, challenged the ordinations, decried the bishops' actions, calling them understandable but "wrong."cite web| author= "Time"| title= The Women Priests| date= August 26, 1974| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944969,00.html| accessdate= 2007-02-01] But the church was moving in this direction already, and the General Convention of 1976 voted to open the priesthood to women.cite web| author= McCurdy, Claire, Leslie Reyman, and Letitia Campbell| title= Processing the Papers of Women Religious Figures: The Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship (AWTS) Project| publisher= "Annotation" (Vol. 30:1 ISSN 0160-8460) The Newsletter of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission| date= March 2002| url= http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/annotation/march-2002/women-theological-scholarship.html| accessdate= 2007-01-26]Piccard served as a deacon or irregular at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in
Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1975-1977.cite web| author= Minnesota Historical Society| title= St. Philips Episcopal Church Records| date= 1900-1995| url= http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00398.html| accessdate= 2007-01-25] In 1977 the Episcopal Church recognized her ordination. Kathryn Piccard, her granddaughter who also became an Episcopal priest, later quoted in "The New York Times ", said, "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do."cite web| author= Goldman, Ari L.| title= Religion Notes| publisher= The New York Times| date= July 30, 1994| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E2D71739F933A05754C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | accessdate= 2008-03-29] Piccard became a volunteer chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital, now United Hospital, and assistant pastor with pastor Denzil Carty at Episcopal Church on Maccubin, both in Saint Paul.cite web| author= McKewin, Robert| title= Part III: My Greatest Influences| publisher= Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota's Greatest Generation| date= November 2, 2006| url= http://people.mnhs.org/mgg/story.cfm?storyid=615&bhfv=2&bhfx=9.0%20r16&bhqs=1| accessdate= 2007-01-30] From 1968 to 1981 she was an honorary member of theSeabury-Western Theological Seminary board of trustees.Piccard died of
cancer at age 86 at Masonic Memorial Hospital inMinneapolis, Minnesota .Honors
*
Harmon Trophy cite web| author= The New York Times| title= Harmon Air Prize Is Won by Scott (Mme. Piccard Named, Too)| date= March 11, 1935| url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C1EF83A5B107A93C3A81788D85F418385F9| accessdate= 2007-01-31] 1934
* National Aeronautic Association [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,931509,00.html Certificate of Reward & Performance] 1935
* Balloon Club of America, Silver Recognition Salver, 1934 flight 25th anniversary 1959
* American Astronautical Society (AAS) [http://astronautical.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=73 William Randolph Lovelace II Award] 1965
* University of Minnesota [http://education.umn.edu/alumni/awards/awards.html Outstanding Achievement Award] 1968
* University of Minnesota Alumni Association [http://www.alumni.umn.edu/Who_is_on_the_Wall_of_Honor.html Alumni Wall of Honor]
* Honorary member, Sigma Delta Epsilon [http://www.gwis.org/about/hon_members.htm Graduate Women in Science] 1971
* [http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=141 International Space Hall of Fame] 1998
* Nominated, posthumously, [http://www.fai.org/ballooning/achieve.asp FAI Ballooning Commission Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.bfa.net/competition/comphistory.php Piccard Memorial Trophy] , Balloon Federation of America, renamed for Piccard
*"Solo Flight", [http://www.uts.columbia.edu/projects/AWTS/awts_event.html play] by Pat Donohue, about Piccard
* [http://www.brynmawr.edu/Library/IAD/Funds/funds-op.htm Jeanette Ridlon Piccard Book Fund] , named for Piccard, Bryn Mawr College LibraryPiccard family balloonists
*
Auguste Piccard (physicist, balloonist, hydronaut)
**Jacques Piccard (hydronaut)
***Bertrand Piccard (psychiatrist, balloonist)
*Jean Felix Piccard (organic chemist and balloonist)
**Jeannette Piccard (wife of Jean Felix) (balloonist)
***Don Piccard (balloonist)Notes
External links
*cite web| author= Sorenson, Paul| title= Looking Back...| publisher= "AEM Update", University of Minnesota Institute of Technology| date= 1998-1999| url= http://www.aem.umn.edu/info/update/1998-99/Looking.html| accessdate= 2007-01-27
*cite web| author= Diocese of Easton| title= The path to priesthood... "The Philadelphia Eleven"| date= April 21, 2006| url= http://www.dioceseofeaston.org/Philadelphia%20eleven.html| accessdate= 2007-01-29
*cite web| author= Century of Flight| title= Jeannette Piccard| date= undated| url= http://www.century-of-flight.freeola.com/new%20site/balloons/Jeanette%20Piccard.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-24
*cite web| author= Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.| title= The Piccard Family Papers, Register. Prepared by Warren Ohrville and Joseph Sullivan et al. 1995| date= 1470-1983| url= http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?faid/faid:@field(TITLE+@band(piccard+family+papers| accessdate= 2007-01-31
*cite web| author= Piccard.info| title= Jeannette Ridlon Piccard| date= undated| url= http://www.piccard.info/jeannette_ridlon_piccard.htm| accessdate= 2007-01-31
*cite web| author= Museum of Science and Industry| title= MSIChicago Exhibits: The Piccard gondola| date= 2003| url= http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/transport/piccard.html| accessdate= 2007-01-31
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