June (Skye) Szirotny (1929 -) | University of Illinois Archives

June Marjorie (Skye) Szirotny (1929 - ) was an assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois from 1968 to 1976, and has since been a visiting scholar at the university. She received a bachelor's (1950) and master's (1951) degree in English from the University of Michigan, and received a Ph.D. (1966) in English from Stanford University. Her dissertation focused on the religious background of the novels of George Eliot, and Szirotny has since published articles on George Eliot, as well as the book: George Eliot's Feminism: The Right to Rebellion (2015). Szirotny worked as an instructor of English at the University of Missouri at Columbia (1952-55), Stanford University (1957-59, 1962-63), and Queens College of The City University of New York (1963-66), before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Illinois. Her fellowships include University of Illinois faculty summer fellowships (1969-1970), Fulbright grant for study in England (1966-1967), and the Stanford Wilson graduate fellowship (1962-1963), and she was a member in the honorary scholastic societies: Phi Beta Kappa (1950), Phi Kappa Phi (1950), and Alpha Lambda Delta (1947).

June Marjorie (Skye) Szirotny was born on February 12, 1929 in Riverdale, Illinois to Andrew Olaus and Esther Pearce Skye. In 1959, June Skye married Karoly Berthold Szirotny. An orthodox Catholic priest born in Budapest, Karoly Szirotny, escaped from Hungary to the United States in 1955 and was laicized when he married. Karoly Szirotny died of cancer in 1963 about three years after marrying June Skye. Szirotny's early life is documented in scrapbooks created by her mother, Esther Pearce Skye, and can be found in her collection.