Ormond Stone

Dir. 1882-1912

Ormond Stone was born January 11, 1847 in Pekin, Illinois, the son of a Methodist minister, the Rev. Elijah and Sophia Creighton Stone. While attending Chicago High School, he met Professor Truman Henry Safford, an astronomer at the recently completed Dearborn Observatory and Stone became his pupil, quickly beginning his life-long interest in astronomy. In 1866 Stone enrolled at the University of Chicago, graduating with a degree of M.A. in 1870. Working his way through school, he served as an instructor in 1867-8 at Racine College in Wisconsin, then at the Northwestern Female College (which is now a part of Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois in 1869. Also that year, he participated in what would be the first of three eclipse expeditions in his lifetime. It was on this trip to Des Moines, Iowa with Professor Safford that he met astronomers from the United States Naval Observatory. He would end up being in charge of the later two expeditions, the first in 1878, when he led the USNO expedition to Colorado, and the May 28, 1900 eclipse, when he led the McCormick Observatory expedition to Winesboro, South Carolina (Samuel Mitchell was in Griffin, Georgia observing this same eclipse). Upon graduating from the University of Chicago in 1870, he accepted an assistantship at the USNO where he stayed until 1875. He was assigned to the Meridian Circle, under William Harkness. His tenure there coincided with the arrival of the 26-inch Alvan Clark refractor at the Naval Observatory. This telescope was essentially a twin to the future McCormick Refractor. In 1871, he married Catherine Flagler of Washington, D.C.

In 1875, Stone accepted the directorship of the Cincinnati Observatory, having received a recommendation from Simon Newcomb. While there, he instituted a program of discovering new southern double stars and was the first to establish standard time for an American city, and he pushed for the adoption of Standard Time Belts (or zones, as we now know them). In 1882, with Leander J. McCormick's approval, Stone was offered the position of director at the brand new observatory being built at the University of Virginia, and was accompanied from Cincinnati by John Jones and Frank P. Leavenworth. Stone oversaw the final stages of construction on the Observatory, which was completed for use in 1885, but began astronomical work almost immediately upon his arrival in Charlottesville. Stone's work focused largely on observing nebulae, southern variables and double stars. The Observatory's resources included the 67-cm refractor, a 3-inch Fauth transit, a 4-inch Kahler refractor, a sidereal clock and a meantime chronometer.

As director, Stone's responsibilities included fundraising, which he detested and did very poorly. Though the Observatory was always short of funds, he used funds donated by William Vanderbilt to establish three fellowships, $350 for a year, to pay for assistants at the observatory. The list of Vanderbilt Fellows the worked under Stone was an impressive one and included astronomers, university presidents, professors and professionals in various fields. Stone had a good-natured disposition and appreciated a joke at his expense, including the gibes that accompanied his nickname at the Observatory, "Twinkles".

Stone also had a reputation for being forgetful, as shown in this story from Vanderbilt Fellow Charles P. Olivier:

"He was a sociable man and enjoyed the companionship of friends. He was also quite forgetful, an absent-minded professor when his mind was on his work. At the time he taught there, the university grounds ended at Emmett Street, near a cemetery. Professor Stone would ride his horse down to the campus and tie it up in the cemetery while he went to teach his class. Sometimes he would get sidetracked for hours, completely forgetting about the horse. The first time this happened, some very frightened residents sent for the police and asked them to find out what was causing the dreadful noises coming from the cemetery late in the night. The police found the hose, alone and hungry, and after much searching, they found a student who recognized the horse as belonging to Professor Stone. The professor was finally found at home, sound asleep, blissfully unaware of the turmoil he had caused. After that, whenever the dreadful noises were heard in the cemetery a student would be rounded up and sent to get the horse and take it home to Professor Stone."

Stone remained at the McCormick Observatory until 1912. In his time there, he taught various astronomy courses for the University, founded the Annals of Mathematics in 1884, funded the publication with his own money, and edited the journal (with William M. Thornton, Chair of the Faculty for the first volume) until 1899 (after which he served on the editorial board), founded the Philosophical Society at UVA and spent much of the final ten years of his directorship in the cause for secondary education in Virginia. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Member: 1875; Fellow: 1876; Chair, Committee on Standard Time: 1880; Member of Committee on Stellar Magnitudes: 1880; Vice-President, Astronomy and Mathematics: 1887; Vice-President of Section A: Astrometry, of Department 11: Astronomy: 1888; Chair: 1901 Councilor, Section A, Mathematics and Astronomy: 1902-1905; Sectional Committee, Section A: 1905-1907; Emeritus Life Member: 1927), the American Astronomical and Astrophysical Society, now known as the American Astronomical Society (Councilor 1899-1909), and the American Mathematical Society (Councilor 1897), among many other academic societies. He served on the Board of Visitors (as Secretary) for the United States Naval Observatory from 1901 to 1903, served on the first Advisory Committee on Mathematics for the Carnegie Institution of Washington starting in 1902, and was a trustee of Harrisonburg Normal College (now James Madison University. He also maintained contacts with people of influence across the country, including his brother Melville Stone, the founder of the Chicago Daily News, who became well known as the General Manager of Associated Press.

He retired on a stipend from the Carnegie Foundation in 1912 to a 30-acre farm in Centreville, Virginia, with a two-story house set well back from the road and surrounded by tall poplar trees. His wife died in 1914 and he later married Mary Florence Brennan of Lansing, Michigan. He brought Mary back to Centreville along with her two sisters Grace and Elizabeth. Stone attended a local, little stone Methodist church on Braddock Road or Zion Church in Fairfax. He continued to be active in the educational, religious and social problems of his local community and the state. He was the first resident to cede land to the state for a right-of-way to build a road crossing the farms between Lee Highway and Braddock Road in Centreville, and so the road was named Stone Road (now also designated as Route 662).

He served as Vice President of the Virginia State Teachers' Association, and was a leader in the movement to improve Virginia's public school system. In 1991, a Ormond Stone Middle School was opened in Fairfax County.

In November 1929, Professor Stone (as everyone referred to him) and his friend, lawyer Thomas Keith approached the County Board of Supervisors to request space to begin a library. The County provided no funds, but a small space in an old office in the courthouse and it was the first step in the eventual establishment of the Fairfax County Public Library System. Stone spent much of his last years gathering and organizing donated books for this small library. He was tragically killed just six days after his eighty-sixth birthday when he was struck and instantly killed by a C&P Telephone Company vehicle while he was walking along the road near his farm. He was remembered by friends as a man of strong character, a distinguished scientist, and a faithful Christian gentleman. His funeral was held in the that little stone church on Braddock Road, with many distinguished scientists and countless friends and neighbors in attendance. He was buried in the cemetery at St. John's Episcopal Church on Mt. Gilead Road.

Samuel Alfred Mitchell

Dir. 1913-1945

Samuel Alfred Mitchell was born in Kingston, Ontario on April 29, 1874. This son of John Cook and Sarah Chown Mitchell was the sixth of ten children to grow up in the Mitchell home. At age twelve, undoubtedly to get away from his many siblings, he went off to Kingston Collegiate Institute. From there, he went on to Queen's University where he received his Masters of Arts in mathematics in 1894. While at Queen's University, he was introduced to Reverend James Williamson, known as Uncle Billy, who at eighty years of age found it pleasant to delegate the care of the astronomical instruments to Mitchell which is how he acquired knowledge of the techniques of an astronomical observatory.

Upon encouragement from his math professor, Nathan F. Dupuis, he left in 1895 for The Johns Hopkins University to study math under Simon Newcomb, only to find Newcomb retired. Thomas Craig was the new head of mathematics and Mitchell also began study under Charles Lane Poor, the head of astronomy. Poor was an excellent teacher and Mitchell was inclined to follow astronomy from that point on. Mitchell was awarded an astronomy assistantship for his second year at JHU and continued until he received his PhD in 1898 with his thesis published in the Astrophysical Journal, which included a discussion of the amount of astigmatism of concave grating. While at Hopkins, his astronomy duties consisted of caring for the transit instrument and the clocks in the little observatory behind the physics laboratory, and the 9.5-inch refractor in the dome of the laboratory roof.

Following receipt of his doctoral degree, Mitchell set out for the brand new Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin where he began work as a research student in 1898. Though he enjoyed his work at Yerkes, he was enticed to move away and became an instructor in astronomy at Columbia University in June 1899. The following December he married the daughter of Professor E. T. Dumble who was then the State Geologist of Texas. Over the fourteen years he was at Columbia, Mitchell taught undergraduate courses in descriptive astronomy both at Columbia and later for girls from Barnard College, a year long course in geodesy for third year students, which continued into a first semester fourth year course, and a six week summer camp for civil engineers.

In 1900 he took what would be for him the first of ten eclipse expeditions. The May 28, 1900 eclipse took him to Griffin, Georgia with the United States Naval Observatory. Mitchell became a world-renowned authority on solar eclipses through his numerous expeditions, including trips to: Sumatra in the Dutch West Indies (1901), Spain (1905), Oregon (1918), San Diego (1923), Connecticut (1925), Norway (1927), "Tin-Can Island" in the South Pacific Ocean (1930) and Magog in Canada (1932), with one final expedition taking place in 1937. These ten expeditions allowed him to write Eclipses of the Sun, summarizing his work on solar flash spectra, first published in 1923 and produced through five editions.

Mitchell went back to Yerkes for the summers of 1909, 1910 and 1911 and then returned for a fifteen month sabbatical in 1912 and 1913. Frank Schlesinger first demonstrated the technique of determing stellar parallaxes photographically at Yerkes in 1905, and Mitchell (along with Frederick Slocum) carried out research applying the technique, publishing their results in 1913. At that point, he was offered the directorship at the Leander J. McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. Mitchell spent much of his time and energy as director coming up with funds for running the observatory and paying staff and graduate students. Mitchell started the use of photographic plates with the visual 26-inch refractor shortly after his arrival at the University of Virginia. He became well known for his work on stellar parallaxes and photometry. Dr. Mitchell was liked by faculty and students alike, known for helping to bring prestige to the University. "Corks and Curls", the yearbook at the University of Virginia, honored Dr. Mitchell by dedicating its 1938 volume to him, saying "Dr. Mitchell typifies the intellectual ideal of the University."

Mitchell was elected Director Emeritus in 1945 with a wealth of academic and scientific honors attributed to him.  The following year, the McCormick family recognized him for his service to the Observatory. He was presented a silver plate by two of Leander J. McCormick's grandsons. (Mitchell is shown at the ceremony: l-r Robert H. McCormick, Mrs. Warren Buckley Jr., Harold L. Alden, Mitchell and Leander McCormick-Goodhart). He was a member of the following societies: National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1933), American Association for the Advancement of Science (Vice-President in 1921), American Astronomical Society (V-P 1925-27), American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Samuel Mitchell died in Bloomington, Indiana on February 22, 1960.

Harold Lee Alden

Dir. 1945-1960

Harold Lee Alden was born in Chicago Illinois on January 10, 1890. He received Bachelors of Arts from Wheaton College in 1912, and went on to receive his Master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1913. He served as an assistant in photographic photometry program of the Yerkes Observatory 1912-1914.

Alden's association with the University of Virginia began in 1914 when he came as a graduate student in astronomy under Director Samuel A. Mitchell. He received a Vanderbilt fellowship for his first year of study, later becoming an instructor and receiving his PhD in 1917. He became an associate professor in 1924, but left the following year to become the director of Yale University's southern station in Johannesburg, South Africa. Alden spent twenty years at the Yale Observatory working on the long-focus refractor to determine parallaxes of southern stars. He also concerned himself with a study of the probable errors in the parallax plates taken in Johannesburg. Fellow astronomers attributed much of the Yale Observatory's success in this period to Alden's diligent leadership and dedication to accurate observation.

Alden returned to the University of Virginia in 1945 to succeed Mitchell as Professor of Astronomy, chairman of the Astronomy Department and Director of the Leander McCormick Observatory. The majority of Alden's work at Virginia, both before and after his term at the Yale Observatory, consisted of measurements of stellar parallaxes, proper motions and visual observations of long-period variable stars. He was best remembered for his published studies in long-focus photographic astrometry from both McCormick and Yale Observatories. He was vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chairman of its section D (astronomy) in 1951. From 1952 to 1955, he served as the president of Commission 24, the Stellar Parallaxes section, of the International Astronomical Union.

Alden retired from his position at the University of Virginia on June 30, 1960. Upon his retirement he was made Professor Emeritus in view of his total service of twenty six years as fellow, instructor, and as assistant, associate and full professor. He died in Charlottesville on February 3, 1964. Alden House, a residence on the grounds of the Observatory, was named after him.

Laurence W. Fredrick

Dir. 1962-1979

Larry was recruited to the University of Virginia by William Duren, then Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, who was looking for someone to reestablish the Astronomy Department. At the time, the telescope at McCormick Observatory was not in working order, and much of the equipment was outdated. He came to a department with two faculty members, and through a program of strategic hiring and growth, he led the department to sustained national prominence. 

Upon his arrival at UVA in 1963, he served as the last director of the Leander McCormick Observatory and the first chair of the Department of Astronomy. He realized the scientific potential of McCormick Observatory was limited, so he set out to identify a suitable location to build a modern observatory for the University. This led to the establishment of Fan Mountain Observatory in southern Albemarle County, with first a 31-inch general-purpose telescope, followed by a 40-inch astrometric reflector to continue the parallax work of McCormick Observatory. Around this same time, he was supportive of the effort to bring the headquarters for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to Charlottesville, which invigorated the astronomical research community at UVA. 

Larry was known for his broad expertise as an observer. He was an early advocate for the development of space telescopes, which would not be subject to the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere. He later carried out astrometric studies using the Hubble Space Telescope soon after its launch. 

In addition to his efforts on behalf of the Department and the University, Larry contributed significant service at the national level. He was Secretary of the American Astronomical Society from 1969-1980, a period of significant change and growth in membership. He was also a member of several other professional societies, such as the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Virginia Academy of Science, the Royal Astronomical Society (Fellow), The Planetary Society, and the National Space Society, to name a few. He contributed to the NASA Large Space Telescope Committee, the U. S. Naval Observatory Scientific Visiting Committee, the American Institute of Physics Committee on International Relations, and the American Astronomical Society Committee on Astronomical Public Policy. He chaired NASA’s Astronomy Working Group and was involved in the work of site selection for the Apollo lunar landings. He was also a member of the Astronomy Science Team for the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Larry retired from the Department and was honored as a professor emeritus in 1995. Even in retirement, Larry remained an active part of Department life. He frequently lunched with fellow faculty, taking short walks around Grounds to various restaurants. Larry was an avid golfer, and enjoyed golfing locally at Farmington and Birdwood, as well as traveling to golf all over the world. During his time living at Alden House on Mount Jefferson (Observatory Hill), he held annual Halloween parties that are recalled to this day by faculty and graduate students alike. He was also passionate about photography, and enjoyed taking pictures of nature, astronomical events, and his family. He passed away peacefully on May 19, 2024.