Athena Theodore, sociologist, feminist, activist, author of two classic works on American women at work, died on December 1, 2001, in Naples, Florida. She earned a reputation as a pioneer in the field of American sociology by publishing The Professional Woman in 1971, which became a classic scholarly contribution. Campus Troublemakers, in 1986, was likewise acclaimed as a trailblazing work because of its unique scholarly data on sex bias in academe. The book's evidence gave impetus for legal actions in the courts under the U.S. Civil Rights Act. Theodore's data had a salutary effect upon discriminated women's chances in their legal cases. While researching the book, she saw that few of the faculty women who participated had either the vocabulary or the concep tual tool-kit even to define "it," that is, discrimination. Critics praised the work because, "Its relevance is not limited to campus troublemakers themselves but [extends] also to those who deal with them." Professor Theodore was among those relatively rare (at the time) female scholars who blended objective re search with social activism, and who encouraged the careers of other women. For her, social science's larger purpose of social reform was to bring legal and societal change. Athena was born in Salem, Massachusetts. During World War II, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After the war, she married Christopher Theodore, a professor of business at Boston University, and she earned a Ph.D. in the Boston Univer sity Department of Sociology under the G.I. Bill. Athena had been one of the few Navy women in Communications in the Charlestown Navy Yard. She then took advantage of the same educational opportunity that helped so many men in the military. In later years she was honored for becoming the first woman Ph.D. in sociology at Boston University. Athena taught at Simmons College, where she became a professor em?rita in the 1970s. While at Simmons, she sent urban studies undergraduates into the field of Boston neighborhoods, using the Chicago School method to advance knowledge of ethnic and social enclaves in the interests of public policy. She believed in establishing organizations that focused upon women, and served as a founding member of the national group, Sociologists for Women in Society. In her retirement, she continued to focus on national and regional sociology meet