ITHACA, N.Y. -- Jennie Tiffany Towle Farley, a champion of women's rights and Cornell University professor of industrial and labor relations, co-founder of Cornell's Women's Studies Program and a former member of the university's Board of Trustees, died June 19 in Hudson, N.Y., after a long illness. She was 69.

Farley is widely known for her work on advancing the status of women workers -- especially managers, academic women and clerical women -- as well as for her work on affirmative action, sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. She was a consultant on women's issues to many organizations, including several in Spain, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

"Jennie was truly an amazing woman -- a tireless educator and scholar, a contributor to women's rights issues and a staunch community causes volunteer. This campus will miss her many contributions, as well as her cheery presence," said Susanne Bruyère, director of the Cornell Program on Employment and Disability in the Extension Division of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Farley, who was born in Fanwood, N.J., earned a B.A. in English at Cornell (1954) and then worked as a freelance and staff writer for the magazines Seventeen , Mademoiselle , Punch in London, the Scandinavian Times in Sweden, La Prensa and The Peruvian Times in Peru, and in Cornell's Office of Public Information. After earning an M.S. (1969) in sociology and a Ph.D. (1970) in sociology and communication, both at Cornell, Farley served as a research associate, lecturer and then academic coordinator and faculty board member of the Female Studies Program at Cornell, which subsequently became the Women's Studies Program. She directed this program from 1972 to 1976 and was a member of its executive board ever since. In 1972 she was a co-founder of the Provost's Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women at Cornell, which became the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (ACSW).

She was appointed assistant professor of industrial and labor relations in 1976, was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and then to full professor in 1990. Said Edward J. Lawler, dean of the ILR School: "Jennie was a highly valued colleague, a dedicated member of the ILR community and a faculty member who made substantial contributions to the university over her 30 years at the school. The school will sorely miss her."

Farley is the recipient of many awards, including the Andrew Dickson White Professor of the Year at Cornell; the Alice H. Cook and Constance E. Cook Award from the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, for her efforts on behalf of women at Cornell and beyond; the Woman of Achievement Award from the Broome County Status of Women Council; the Unsung Heroine Award for Leadership in Feminist Education from the Central New York Chapter of the National Organization for Women; the Corinne Galvin Award from the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission; and the Humanitarian Award for Service from the Ithaca community.

Over the span of her three-decade career at Cornell, Farley served untiringly for the Cornell and Ithaca communities. She was a Cornell faculty trustee, a member-at-large of the Cornell Faculty Council of Representatives and the Faculty Senate, a member of the Cornell Advocates for Rape Education and an ILR sexual harassment adviser. She also served on the Cornell Work and Family Advisory Council of the Office of Human Resources. She more recently served as co-president of the American Association of University Women, was an avid supporter of the Women's Community Building in Ithaca and the many causes that it supports on behalf of women, was a co-founder of the Women's Information Network program and was president of the Alumni Board of Trustees of Delta Chi fraternity at Cornell, the only woman to serve in such a capacity within this national fraternity.

Farley is survived by her husband, Donald Farley, the J.P. Levis Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell; a son, Peter; two daughters, Anne and Claire; a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren; a brother, Howard Van Towle; and a sister, Nancy Towle Adshead. Plans for a memorial service will be announced at a later time.

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