Frank K. Edmondson
90th B-Day, August 1, 2002
October 26, 2002: Banquet Dinner (by invitation)
6:30 - 9:30pm, Reception and Dinner in Honor of Professor Emeritus Frank K. Edmondson 90th Birthday (Location: Bloomington Convention Center)
Professor Emeritus Frank K. Edmondson celebrated his 90th birthday on August 1, 2002. If he could sum up his life in one sentence, Frank says it would be that he " was at the right place at the right time more than my fair share.” Well, what Frank attributes to coincidence was more the result of who he was and the choices he made. Anyhow, it cannot hurt to live such a long and active life to multiply one's chances for good luck.
Frank was born in Milwaukee, but moved to Seymour, Indiana when he was five. Except for the odd year or two. Frank has been a resident Hoosier ever since. He first became associated with Indiana University during the heart of the Depression in 1929, as an undergraduate. Living on 25-cent hamburgers and hard work, he graduated in 1933 and spent 1933-34 at Lowell Observatory on a Lawrence Fellowship to earn a Master's degree from IU. In one of the most important "coincidences" of his career, Frank was asked to stay on at Lowell from 1934 to 1935 to replace an incompetent observing assistant who was taking plates for C. Tombaugh’s search for Pluto-like objects. During the summer of this year, Frank met his wife-to-be Margaret Russell, daughter of the distinguished American astronomer Henry Norris Russell. He went on a blind double date with her and her sister, and Margaret engineered a switch of the couplings during the evening to be with Frank. The rest is history.
Frank earned his Ph.D. from Harvard with Bart Bok in 1937 and was immediately hired as the second astronomy faculty member at IU. When Wilbur A. Cogshall retired in 1944, Frank became “chair of himself”. He began a photographic program to recover asteroids lost during the
War, and his negotiation of the post-War gift of Goethe Link Observatory to IU led to the creation of IU's Ph.D. program in astronomy. Under Frank's chairmanship from 1944 to 1978, the department grew to about its present size. He entered full retirement in 1983.
In addition to his scholarly interests in stellar kinematics, galactic structure, astrometry of asteroids, and history of astronomy, Frank has compiled a remarkable resume of service to the astronomical community. He was the Third Program Director for Astronomy of the National Science Foundation in 1956-1957, Treasurer of the American Astronomical Society from 1954 to 1975, and Statistical Advisor to Dr. Alfred Kinsey during his studies of human sexuality. Frank played a major role in the development and site selection of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories and ensured that IU was a founding member of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). At the young age of 85, Frank had his first book published AURA and its US National Observatories. He still holds the title of Consultant Historian for AURA. Frank's current project is a history of the IU Department of Astronomy, and he says he has already completed a detailed chronology.
Thanks for all you have done, Frank. We look forward to feting you in October and wish you another fruitful and lively decade ahead. Luck comes to those who seize the opportunities which are always around us. Nunc Carpe Centannum!
