Joyce Trebilcot
Joyce leaves this earth to enjoy greater freedom, joy, and peace and to have her work continue to enlighten wimmin who are discovering their own values and identity without the oppression and restraints of this world. Dr. Trebilcot is the daughter of the late Angela Dameral and Earl Trebilcot and a fourth generation Californian who grew up in Oakland, CA. She leaves behind her loving and devoted partner of 24 years, Jan Crites; dear friend Christine Hood; two cousins, Don and Ray Dameral and may students, colleagues, friends, radical feminists and her SWIP (Society for Women in Philosophy) sisters.
Joyce Trebilcot, Ph.D. was the first womon to become a regular and later tenured faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, in the School of Arts and Sciences at Washington University beginning in 1970. She did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkley and received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1970. Professor Trebilcot was a co-founder of the Washington University Women’s Studies Program, and was its coordinator from 1980-1992. She was also a founding member of the Society for Women in Philosophy and Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy and served for many years on the editorial boards of Hypatia, Social Theory and Practice, and the Journal of Social Philosophy.
She held visiting professorships at the University of New Mexico and at the Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She is the author of Dyke Ideas: Politics, Process and Daily Life; a published paper on Taking Responsibility for Sexuality; and many articles in feminists, lesbian and philosophy publications. Her Article, “Sex Roles: The Argument from Nature,” has reprinted many times. She also was the editor of “Mothering: Essays in Feminism Theory”, and of a special issue of the Journal of Social Philosophy and Feminist Social Philosophy. Dr. Trebilcot retired as Professor Emerita from the Department of Philosophy in 1995.
Following her Retirement she remained engaged in feminist dialogue with her colleagues, friends and anyone else whose attention she could garner. May her work continue to inform many to come.
Joyce has left us all with a great deal to be inspired by. Jan you have been astounding in your love and commitment in caring for Joyce. The obituary is a fitting and loving tribute to your remarkable partner. We love you both.
Jan,
I consider myself lucky to have been accepted and respected by Joyce. Thanks for your part in helping that to happen.
Your Friend,
Dan
I experienced Joyce as one wild passionate womyn! She voiced her opinions on every subject with force and glee, often noting the herstory behind her remarks – always the teacher.
The news of Joyce’s passing acknowledged the parting from this place of a warrior. When the zine Resist! was started, the first cover carried a picture of Joyce’s license plate. It was the spirit we needed to forge ahead. Thanks Joyce for always being there when needed, you will be missed.
I guess what I want to say is that I will miss all the insightful and challenging conversations we shared over our various lunches and dinners together. I’ll miss the loss of another sister in the lesbian community who helped to create an environment for women to be nurtured so they might be their best selves. I’ll miss her deeply as a comrade “resisting” oppression. I’ll miss our local adventures–the carousel ride, the river boat trip, or just feeding the ducks. I’ll miss sharing our love of women, books, and music–from Janice Joplin to wimmins’ music to the classics. Joyce quenched my thirst for knowledge. I hope there is now for Joyce a true freedom, peace, and harmony. It was truly great sharing and evolving with her the past 30 plus year.
While over time, Joyce and I were able to call each other “friend,” she contributed to my life in two very important ways. Before I even met her, I had read her essay “Craziness as a Source of Separatism” in which she made it clear that sometimes when we can’t do a thing we think we want to do or “should” do, we are in fact “taking good care of (ourselves). (We) resisted in order to continue as an individual–in order not to be submerged, subjected, merged.” That was a defining moment for me in that it so clearly explained what I had heretofore thought of as a failure. I eventually got to tell Joyce how she had so critically touched my life. Even more than that, she always greeted me with such a positive welcome that in time I looked to her as a spritual and literary mother. She always made me think, move further along my path, and filled my heart. I will be thinking of her often!
Jan: Although I never had the good fortune of making Joyce’s aquaintance, I feel confident that through the stories you shared about some of your adventures I would of thought her to be one fine superior individual as I find you. Your dedication and love cradled her during her hardest times and there is no loyalty, love, sacrifice, or devotion more then I can imagine. I hope your heart stays strong during this very difficult time and I wish for you the serenity that could come in time from your memories together and your dedication and love during her struggles. My heart aches for your loss and your pain. Your friend always…
We will miss Joyce’s brilliant mind and challenging spirit. She challenged us to examine the way we think. Jan, we can not truly understand the depths of your sadness in the loss of your partner but know we treasure the opportunity we had to spend time with and get to know Joyce. Your love and care for Joyce gives us a model for our own lives. Jane and Alan
Jan — I am so sorry to hear about Joyce. Please know that my thoughts and my love are with you. Rose
Jan, My love to you and to Joyce, who has, and continues to, inspire me in so many ways.
Jan–know you are in my thoughts and my heart as you face life without Joyce’s physical presence. Your love and caring made her life so much better–thank you. I’m grateful to have spent 10+ years with Joyce in the Women’s Studies Program at Washington University. She changed my life in so many ways–an important part of who I am today is because of who she was and is. May you feel her spirit surrounding you every moment of every day. If there is a Tribute/Memorial service, please let me know. Blessings to you dear Jan.
I was one of the first to graduate in the Women’s Studies program Joyce did so much to create and sustain. I was challenged by her thinking and sustained by her example, even when we did not always agree. I was so lucky that she stayed in my life through the bookstore all these years. And I always looked forward to her snappy, classy sense of style, although I’m sure I have found heterosexist terms to describe it. She was brilliant in a mad, loving wonderful way. I will so miss her. My heart goes out to you Jan, in your time of great loss and sadness.
Here’s the online obituary of one of dearest 30+ year old friend/soulmate and mentor, though she eshewed the latter term.
Her name was Joyce Trebilcot, and you can’t know me without knowing her, by extension, because she taught me so very, very much.
There aren’t enough words to explain Joyce, her conscious, conscientous, questioning, intellectual, renaissance, compassionate, justice-oriented, all-encompasing mind. But in her later years, she was so much more than just a brilliant mind. She also had a huge heart, which few saw through the years, and struggles that I hope are finally put to rest.
I will miss Joyce very, very, very much, and have unspeakable grief over the loss of her. But her work and valient efforts at justice, freedom and equality will live on and on through her published work and her archives at Wash U. I last had a wonderful conversation with her on January 1st, 2009, She will be sorely missed. Long live Joyce Trebilcot!
Thanks,
Susan B. Echo, June 20, 2009, Boulder
Hi webmaster! qph
I have not kept up with Joyce since I left Wash U in the mid-eighties. But Joyce is never far from my mind, because she was such an important figure in the formative years of my career. I looked up to her as a senior sistah scholar and a mentor, who introduced me to the world of academic feminism.
As I have gone on with my career and build academic programs in race and ethnic studies–at the U. of Colorado Boulder and now at Brown–I always remember Joyce’s dedication and leadership model when she built Women Studies at Wash U in the seventies. She is a pioneer and an inspiration to us all!
Evelyn Hu-DeHart
Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Professor of History and Ethnic Studies
Brown University
http://Www.brown.edu/race
I was honored to be one of Joyce’s students in Women’s Studies in the mid-80’s and will never forget all I learned from her and how much I benefited from the program she developed and nurtured. Her wisdom, fierce dedication to her beliefs, ability to teach what it meant to her to be a radical, powerful thinker, her commitment to women and the integrity of the program all made an enormous difference in my life. I am who I am today in large measure because of her and am so sorry she is gone. Jan, my thoughts are with you. Joyce will never be forgotten.