- Albert WHITFORD, eminent astronomer and former director of
Lick Observatory, dies at 96
-
- SANTA CRUZ, CA--Albert E. WHITFORD, an acclaimed astronomer,
former director of the
- University of California's Lick Observatory, and a professor
emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, died
on Thursday, March 28. He was 96.
- WHITFORD died at Meriter Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin,
after a short illness.
- "He was a very important figure in American astronomy
and at Lick Observatory," said Donald
- Osterbrock, professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics
at UCSC and a close friend of WHITFORD. "He did a tremendous
amount of excellent observational research, chiefly on the structure
of our Galaxy, and was a leader of American astronomy for many
years."
- Born in 1905 in Milton, Wisconsin, WHITFORD received a B.A.
from Milton College and an
- M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at Mt. Wilson Observatory in
California, he joined the astronomy faculty at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked at Wisconsin's Washburn Observatory
for 23 years, serving as its director from 1948 through 1958.
- As director of the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton from
1958 to 1968, WHITFORD oversaw
- the completion of the 3-meter (120-inch) Shane Telescope
in 1959, the observatory's premier research instrument. At the
time, it was the second largest telescope in the world, and it
is still a highly productive instrument. He was also director
when the observatory moved its headquarters to the newly established
UC Santa Cruz campus in 1966. The Mt. Hamilton astronomers formed
the core of UCSC's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
- "He planned and led that move, and his leadership and
diplomacy made the other astronomers
- willing to go along, so the move was accomplished without
disrupting the observatory," Osterbrock said.
- WHITFORD is best known for his pioneering work in photoelectric
photometry, which began with
- Joel Stebbins at the University of Wisconsin. Trained in
laboratory physics, Whitford greatly improved the sensitivity
of photometers. This led to the first precise measurements of
the magnitudes and colors of many faint stars, clusters, and
galaxies. The "WHITFORD Reddening Curve," which quantifies
the interstellar absorption of light, proved vital in mapping
the distribution of stars within our Milky Way Galaxy. WHITFORD
also studied the structures and dynamics of the spherical blobs
of stars at the centers of galaxies, known as nuclear bulges.
- WHITFORD played a key role in the growth of U.S. astronomy,
presiding over several national
- commissions on astronomical research. He chaired a 1953 conference
that led to the national observatory system, and he presided
over a 1964 report from the National Academy of Sciences, known
as the WHITFORD report, that laid out the first of a series of
10-year plans for the field.
- After resigning from the Lick Observatory directorship in
1968, WHITFORD returned to full-time
- research and teaching. He continued to collaborate actively
and publish papers with other astronomers at UCSC even after
formally retiring from the active faculty when he reached mandatory
retirement age in 1973. WHITFORD lived in Santa Cruz until 1996,
when he returned to Madison, Wisconsin. There he continued his
active interest in research from an office in the university's
Astronomy Department until October 2001.
- WHITFORD received many honors for his work in astronomy.
The American Astronomical
- Society named him the Henry Norris Russell Lecturer in 1986,
and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded him its Catherine
Wolfe Bruce Medal in 1996, the highest honors given by each of
those societies. WHITFORD served as president of the American
Astronomical Society from 1967 to 1970, and he was a member of
the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. He received honorary doctorate degrees from
Milton College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Whitford married Eleanor Bell WHITELAW in 1937. They remained
married until her death in
- 1986. He is survived by three children--William C. WHITFORD
of Madison, WI, Mary GRAVES of San Francisco, CA, and Martha
BARSS of Baltimore, MD--and nine grandchildren, plus many nieces
and nephews.
- A memorial service will be held on Sunday, April 14, at 1
p.m. in the auditorium of the Meriter
- Health Center in Madison. Contributions in Whitford's memory
may be sent to Lick Observatory at: Office of the Director, UCO/Lick
Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa
Cruz, CA, 95064.
-
- Courtesy of UC-Santa Cruz.
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