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JULY 9, 1932SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ-II 1Scion of Famous ScientificFamily Will Be Sew Direc-j tor of Yerkes dbservatory.DR. OTTO STRUVE, who just has assumed the directorshipj of the famous Yerkes observatory ofthe University of Chicago, is the fifth of a notable family of astronomers to hold such post.Dr. Struve is a young man. He will celebrate his 35th birthday in August. He succeeds Professor Edwin B. Frost, who retired on July1 at the age of 65.Dr. Frost joined the Yerkea observatory in 1898. He then was the world’s chief expert in the use of 1 the spectroscope. In 1920 his eyes | began to fail him and for the lastfew years he has carried on his executive duties in soite of his• ifHRpK-;' ” ’ ' 7, ■■ *A few years ago, I heard him lecture, using lantern slides whichhad been made since his blindness. They were pictures which he never had seen except through the eyes of his colleagues. ^ * v ' Young Struve belongs to the fourth generation of astronomers in his family. The family, while of German origin, won its scientific distinction in Russia, and, as Dr. Frost said, ‘'gave Russia its highest achievement and distinction in science.”i * * *His Great GrandfatherIT was just 117 years ago that Friedrich George Wilhelm Struve, great-grandfather of Otto Struve, was appointed observer for the telescope” at the University of Dor-pat. Friedrich then was 20 years old.Friedrich’s son, bom at Dorpat, was named Otto Wilhelm Struve.He became his father’s assistant atthe age of 18.In 1839, Friedrich was appointed director of the great Pulkova observatory near St. Petersburg. He took his son along as his assistant. The two carried on their work there for fifty years, Otto succeeding his father as director in 1862.Otto had two sons, both of whom were born at Pulkova and both of whom became directors of observatories. They were Ludwig, father of the present Otto, and Karl Hermann.Karl carried on work successively at observatories in Strasbourg, Paris, Dorpat and then back to Pulkova. In 1895 he became director of the observatory at Koenigsberg in East Prussia.In 1905 he was made director of the University of Berlin’s observatory, where he supervised erection of the present buildings at NeuBabelsberg, on the outskirts of I Berlin.He has a son, George, who is a member of the staff at Neu Babelsberg.Ludwig, the other son of Otto ! Wilhelm Struve, served at Pulkova | from 1880 to 1886 and then at Dorpat. In 1894, he was appointed director of the observatory at the Uni-n versity of Kharkov in the Ukraine.; As already stated, Ludwig is the j father of the new director of the Yerkes observatory.nunServed in WarDR. OTTO STRUVE was educated at the University of Kharkov, receiving his diploma in 1919. That same year he became a junior instructor in the observatory headed by his father.In 1917 he joined the Imperial Russian army and served as a lieutenant on the Turkish front. After the disruption of the imperial forces he became a member of the armiesof the White Russians under Generals Denikin and Wrangel.When these were overthrown, he went to Gallipoli in 1920 and from there to Constantinople.Dr. Struve lived in Constantinople until a letter to Dr. Frost I from the Struves in Berlin asked Dr. Frost to try to find him a po-. j sition in America. Dr. Frost brought him to the Yerkes observatory.Meanwhile. Dr.' Struve’s father, ’ who had fled from Kharkov in 1919 i during the revolution, found a post ' at the University of Simferopol, which he held until his death the following year. • . vDr. Struve joined the Yerkes observatory in 1921 as a graduate stu- . dent assistant. He collaborated with Dr. Frost on a number ofstudies. .» 4 '/In 1923 he received the degree ofPh. D. from the University of Chicago. Subsequently, as a Guggenheim fellow, he carried on studies with Professor A. S. Eddington in London. / ‘ .. 7He also carried on studies at Harvard observatory and at Mt. Wilson observatory. ^ /In 1925 he married Miss Mary Lanning of Detroit. In 1927 he was granted American citizenship.
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