Orlie Pell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orlie Pell
A young white woman, standing outdoors, wearing a coat and holding books and papers in her arms
Orlie Pell, from the 1922 Bryn Mawr yearbook
Born
Orlie Anna Haggerty Pell

December 13, 1900
DiedApril 11, 1975 (1975-04-12) (aged 74)
Occupation(s)Pacifist, philosopher, activist

Orlie Pell (December 13, 1900 – April 11, 1975) was an American pacifist, philosopher, and activist.

Early life[edit]

Orlie Anna Haggerty Pell was born in Paris in 1900, and raised in New York City, the daughter of American parents Howland Haggerty Pell and Mary W. Willetts Pell.[1] Her father was a stock broker.[2] She was part of the prominent extended Pell family that included Claiborne Pell, Stephen Hyatt Pell, William Ferris Pell, and Duncan Pell, among others.[3][4]

Pell attended St. Timothy's School in Catonsville, Maryland, and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1922.[5] The following year, she completed a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[6] She completed doctoral studies in philosophy at Columbia University in 1930, with a dissertation titled "Value Theory and Criticism".[7]

Career[edit]

Pell was a philosophy professor and trustee at Hollins College in Virginia.[6][8] Later in life she taught political science at Bryn Mawr College.[9] Her academic writing appeared in journals including Adult Education Quarterly;[10] she also wrote for The Woman Today and other publications on workers' rights.[11]

During the 1930s, Pell was involved with the Association of Unemployed Single Women,[12][13] and taught at the Summer School for White-Collar Workers in Chicago,[4] and at a Summer School for Office Workers in Oberlin, Ohio, funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).[14][15] At the latter, she came under press scrutiny when she admitted that the summer students sang "The Internationale" and other songs associated with communism.[16]

She was the US president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) from 1957 to 1961,[17] and attended international meetings of the WILPF in Copenhagen, Birmingham, and Stockholm, and represented the League at the United Nations.[18][19] She served on the national board of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).[4]

Pell served on the executive board of the National Committee for Sane Nuclear Policy.[6][20] She was a member of the Civil Defense Protest Committee, with Dorothy Day, Bayard Rustin, Ralph DiGia, Ammon Hennacy, A.J. Muste, James Peck and Judith Malina Beck.[21] Pell was president of the League of Women Voters of Hunterdon County from 1966 to 1967,[22] and president of the Raritan Township Citizens' Housing Corporation, to secure affordable housing for senior residents.[3][9][23]

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Pell died in 1975, aged 74 years, in Clinton Township, New Jersey.[3] Her papers are archived at Rutgers University.[20] The papers of the Civil Defense Protest Committee are in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.[21] Video of a 1974 interview featuring Pell, Eleanor G. Coit, and Hilda Worthington Smith, speaking about their experiences at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, was released on DVD in 2011.[24] The city of Lambertville, New Jersey has a Dr. Orlie Pell Fund for emergency relief.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Orlie Pell". Women In Peace. 10 November 2019. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  2. ^ "HOWLAND H. PELL, A RETIRED BROKER; Ex-Member of Stock Exchange Here Dies at 74mWas Long Active in Naval Affairs". The New York Times. 1949-06-07. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  3. ^ a b c "Dr. Orlie Pell, 74, Housing Advocate". The Courier-News. 1975-04-18. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c McCarthy, Jula (1942-10-03). "Grime Glamour Hard on White-Collar Girl". Daily News. p. 233. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Bryn Mawr College, Yearbook (1922): 113.
  6. ^ a b c "Peace Group President Will Speak in City". The Capital Times. 1958-05-15. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers,com.
  7. ^ "Dissertations". Research Pragmatism Cybrary. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  8. ^ "Hollins College Has Re-Elected All Officers". The Times Dispatch. 1945-06-24. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b "Orlie Pell Set Good Example". The Courier-News. 1975-04-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Pell, Orlie A. H. (1952-04-01). "Social Philosophy at the Grass Roots The Work of the AEA'S Committee on Social Philosophy". Adult Education. 2 (4): 123–124. doi:10.1177/074171365200200401. ISSN 0001-8481. S2CID 145647610.
  11. ^ Pell, Orlie A. H. (July 1937). "The Office Workers are Awake" The Woman Today 2(3): 7, 22.
  12. ^ "Reds Badger La Guardia on Relief Work". Chicago Tribune. 1934-01-03. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "200 Single Women Tell CWA of Dire Need for Work". Daily News. 1933-12-08. p. 430. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Oberlin Awaiting Verdict". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1934-08-14. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Claims 'Red' Literature at FERA Schools". Palladium-Item. 1934-09-19. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Songs Sung in Fun". The Indianapolis Star. 1934-08-15. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Hunter, John Patrick (1958-05-22). "H-Bomb Fear Seen as Spur to Peace". The Capital Times. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Peace League to Hear Talk". Lansing State Journal. 1961-05-07. p. 32. Retrieved 2021-06-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Kennedy Foreign Policy Praised in Speech Here". The Ithaca Journal. 1961-05-19. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b "Inventory of the Orlie Pell Papers". Rutgers University Libraries. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  21. ^ a b "Collection: Civil Defense Protest Committee Collected Records". Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Tri College Libraries Archives. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  22. ^ "AAUW to Hear LWV President". The Courier-News. 1967-10-14. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Seniors Housing Group Formed". The Courier-News. 1972-07-01. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Rutgers University.; Smith, Hilda (2011). Orlie Pell, Hilda Smith, and Eleanor Coit : workers education in the U.S. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University.
  25. ^ "Dr. Orlie Pell Fund, Inc". City of Lambertville. Retrieved 2021-06-18.