Obituaries Prepared by the Historical
1453 Obituaries Prepared by the Historical Astronomy Division LAWRENCE HUGH ALLER, 1913–2003 The announcement still lies in my inbox: ‘‘Lawrence Al- ler died last Sunday.’’ On 16 March 2003, one of the world’s fine astronomers passed away at the age of 89, leaving be- hind a legacy that will ripple as long as there are students of the celestial science, one that incorporated observation, theory, education, care, decency, and kindness. Lawrence was born in the humblest of conditions in Tacoma, Washington, on 24 September 1913. His mother, Lella ͑Belle͒ Allen, was a homemaker and his father Leslie Aller, was an occasional printer and gold prospector who thought that the use of the mind was a waste of time. With fierce persistence and dedication, Lawrence pulled off a feat that would probably not be possible now: getting into college without having finished high school, the result of being dragged to work in his father’s primitive gold mining camp. His interest, sparked by leaflets from the Astronomical Soci- ety of the Pacific and by Russell, Dugan, and Stewart’s ven- erable textbook, led him to a correspondence, and finally a meeting, with Donald Menzel of Harvard, who persuaded the admissions director of the University of California at Berke- ley to admit him in 1932. From there, Lawrence went on to graduate school at Har- vard and the Harvard Society of Fellows, where he studied with Menzel and developed his interest in stellar and nebular astronomy. After working in the War effort, he made his professorial debut at Indiana University, where he stayed un- Lawrence Henry Aller til 1948 before leaving for the University of Michigan.
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