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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 58 (1989)

Chapter: Charles Donald Shane

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Suggested Citation:"Charles Donald Shane." National Academy of Sciences. 1989. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 58. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1645.
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CHARLES DONALD SHANK September 6, 1895—March l 9, 1983 BY S. VASILEVSKIS AND D. E. OSTERBROCK CDONALD SHANK was born, grew up, and lived all his . life in California. He was well known not only for his research, but, especially for his initiative, leaclership, and act- ministration of scientific projects and programs. The most prominent period of Shane's professional life was his direc- torship of Lick Observatory of the l:~niversity of California from 1945 until 1958. During those thirteen years, he initi- ated anct virtually completed the 120-inch reflector, the larg- est hick telescope. It was named after him in 1978. At Lick Observatory he also carried out his monumental program of counting external galaxies and investigating their ctistribu- t~on. LIFE HISTORY Shane was born on the Futhey ranch near Auburn, Cali- fornia, on September 6, 1895, the eldest of four children. According to family tradition, an ancestor on his father's sicle, James McShane, had come from {relend about 1745 and settIect on Long IslancI. Soon after his arrival in America he dropped the "Mc" from his name. His son, James Shane, migrated west to Pennsylvania. Later he became one of the early settlers of Ohio. Donald Shane's father, Charles Nelson Shane, was born in Adamsville, Ohio, in IS61 and moved to 489

490 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS California in ISS6. He settled in Placer County and was ap- pointect teacher in the one-room Lone Star School, about eight miles north of Auburn. One of Donald Shane's ancestors on his mother's side, Patrick Futhey, escapee! from Scotland after taking the losing side in a "civil war" (or rebellion, as the winning sicle collect it) and settled in {relancI. His son Robert I. Futhey came to America about ~ 730. Robert I. Futhey's son, also named Rob- ert, was reported to have married Isabella KicId, daughter of Captain Kidd. The family moved westward step by step, and in 1882 Donald Shane's grandfather, Robert Scott Futhey, made the long trip from Kansas to California, where he es- tablished a ranch near Auburn. His daughter Annette taught in various one-room schools in Placer County. In IS94, she married Charles N. Shane while he was principal of Auburn Grammar School. He was elected Superintendent of Schools for Placer County and server! in this position from 1902 until 1910. Donald Shane spent his childhood in a semi-rural envi ronment with plentiful opportunities for outdoor recreation. On graduation from the Auburn Grammar School, he en- terec! Placer County High School, which he attenclec] for two years. His parents, concerned with the education of their chil- dren, decided to move to the bigger city of Oakland. Con- sequently, Charles N. Shane ant! his son went there in July of 1910, six months before the expiration of the father's term as superintendent. Charles N. Shane obtained a position in the Oakland school system and Donald continued his edu- cation at Oakland High School. His mother was appointed to fill out the unexpired superintenclent's term in Placer County, and then she also moved to Oakland with the rest of the children in 191 I. Donald Shane was fortunate in having very good teachers in Auburn as well as in Oakland. He en- tered the University of California at Berkeley in 1912. .

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 491 Shane's interest in astronomy had been awakened at the age of ten by his reading and by conversations with his uncle Edgar Futhey, whose interests were wide-ranging despite his limited formal education. Shane's interest was further stim- ulatect by his teachers in Auburn and Oakland. Still, he was not certain that he could make a living in astronomy. He chose to major in this subject only after the University of California advisors assured him that the Berkeley Astronomy Department was outstanding ant! that he would have no problem finding a good position in this field. It was indeed one of the best astronomy schools in the United States. At that time the faculty of the Berkeley Astronomy De- partment consisted of three members: Armin O. Leuschner, its founder and chairman, R. Tracy Crawford, and SturIa Einarsson. They taught orbit theory, celestial mechanics, ob- servational and spherical astronomy, and general astronomy. In addition, Shane took a number of mathematics and phys- ics courses. By taking a heavy load of courses, carrying out a special project, ant! attencting one summer session, he gracI- uatec! in 1915, after three years instead of the normal four. He was then appointed a teaching fellow in mathematics for the subsequent year, during which he starter! his graduate work in astronomy, mathematics, and physics. He held the Lick Observatory Fellowship, with residence on Mount Ham- ilton, in 96-97 and again in 99-920. Not accepted! for military service in World War ~ because of a minor med- ical problem, Shane instead taught navigation in Oregon and Washington for the Unitec! States Shipping Board from 1917 unti'1919. Shane received his Ph.D. degree in astronomy in 1920 and was appointed an instructor in mathematics at the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley. Gradually he transferred his activities into astronomy, becoming assistant professor of as- tronomy in 1924, working up to professor in 1935, and then

492 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS chairman of the astronomy department in 1941. During World War Il. Shane server! from 1942 to 1945 with the Man- hattan Project, first as assistant director for scientific person- ne] of the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley and subse- quently in the same position at Los Alamos, New Mexico. In 1945 he became director of Lick Observatory. He resigned from the directorship in 1958 but remained! an astronomer on the active faculty until 1963, when he retired at the age - 0 sixty-seven. In 1917, Shane marries! Ethel L. Haskett, who had been the Lick Observatory secretary while he was there. She diect in January 1919, two weeks after their son Charles was born. At the end of 1920 Shane married Mary Lea Heger, and their union continued until the ens! of his life. Their son, William Whitney, was born in 1928. RESEARCH Shane started his research as an undergraduate at Berke- ley under Leuschner, whose field was orbit theory and celes- tial mechanics. Shane's first publications were thus concerned with the elements ant! ephemerides of comets. He considered writing his cloctoral thesis on the orbit of the fifth satellite of Jupiter, which had been discovered by E. E. Barnard at Lick Observatory in 1892. This satellite presented some interest- ing problems in celestial mechanics because of its proximity to the massive, nonspherical planet. However, when Shane went to Mount Hamilton as a Lick Fellow in 19 ~6, his interest turner! to astrophysical problems. For a time he entertained the idea of observing stars at the eciges of ciark nebulae to find out if he could detect reddening of their light resulting from selective absorption. The outstanding theoretical as- tronomer Henry Norris Russell ctiscouraged him from undertaking this seemingly hopeless task, though in 1930

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 493 Robert I. Trumpler at Lick Observatory clicI discover the red- clening that results from interstellar absorption. Uncler the influence of Joseph H. Moore and particularly W. W. Campbell, Shane became interested in spectroscopy. Carbon stars had a special attraction for him and he ulti- mately dicl his thesis on their spectra. It resulted in two pub- lications that had consiclerable influence on subsequent re- search in this field. Because of the superior spectroscopic equipment then available at Lick Observatory, Shane was able to show that what had previously been supposed to be bright emission lines in the spectra of carbon stars were actually gaps between absorption lines and bands. While working on his thesis Shane also became interested in o Ceti, the well-known long-period variable star, and pub- lishec! several papers on its spectrum and on the spectra of novae and other objects. Later he became fascinated by light interference phenomena and applied a Fabry-Perot interfer- ometer to measure the profiles of solar absorption lines. He spent two summers at Mount Wilson Observatory making spectrographic observations of the sun with the Snow tele- scope and with the ~ 50-foot solar tower. Subsequently, he had a coelostat and a spectrograph built for solar observations at Berkeley. In collaboration with Frank H. Spedding and Nor- man S. Grace, Shane did some laboratory research in atomic physics involving heavy hydrogen with this spectrograph. Though Shane was bright, clever, and quick to grasp any new idea up to the time his astronomical career was interrupted by World War Il. he had not carrier] out any long-term re- search programs nor carved out any field as his own. Only after the war clic! he carry out his monumental program as director of Lick Observatory. In 1934, Lick astronomer William H. Wright had ob- tained funcis from the Carnegie Corporation for the design and construction of a powerful 20-inch astrograph to put

494 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS into practice his idea of measuring stellar proper motions with reference to distant galaxies. Delays preventer] his start- ing this program before his retirement in 1942. When Shane became the director in 1945, no other Lick astronomer was interested in the program, ant] he clecidect to undertake it himself. He felt that the observatory, in accepting the Car- negie gift, had made a commitment to continue the project. The astrograph had been completed and erected under Wright's direction. Shane made the final optical adjustments of the astrograph, then started photographing the sky. Shane and his assistant Car! A. Wirtanen took a total of 1,246 ac- ceptable plates between 1947 ant! 1954, covering about 70 percent of the sky on ~ 7 x ~ 7-inch photographic plates, each depicting a 6° x 6° area. In order to measure the stellar proper motions, a second set of photographs tract to be taken a few decades later. In actdition, in response to a request by Dutch astronomer P. I. van Rhijn, Shane and Wirtanen took photographs of 139 Kapteyn Selected Areas, from declina- tion—15° to the North Pole, on 10 x lO-inch plates. Instead of sitting and waiting until the second-epoch ob- servations could be started, Shane decicled to carry out the enormous task of counting all the galaxies recorded on the plates. He hac! two reasons for beginning this program. First, previous knowledge on the distribution of galaxies was based on counts by Edwin Hubble and others in small, discrete areas of the sky. They gave only a general idea of the (listri- bution without any possibility of detecting fine structure within it. Thus there was an important research problem waiting to be carried out. Second, the long-term program, involving much routine counting, couIcl be planned so as not to interfere with his administrative duties as director. He could do part of it himself. Prior to the counting, Wirtanen had to inspect each plate to judge its acceptability. In this process he discovered a num-

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 495 her of new comets. Then he and Shane counted the galaxies nearly in step with the taking of the photographs. Quite early in the program Shank noticer1 nrono',nrer1 r1~'cte~rin~ in 1- -Of rat ~ ^ ~ -^' . . . ~ . . the u~str~but~on ot galaxies as had been reported earlier by HarIow Shapley. Shane invited Berkeley statisticians ~erzy Neyman and Elizabeth L. Scott to make a statistical investi- gation of this phenomenon. They suggested extending the proper-motion program southward for statistical purposes, and Shane anct Wirtanen photographed an additional 144 fields. Neyman and Scott's analysis, jointly with Shane, snowea gnat nor only clusters of galaxies, but also aggregates of clusters exist in the universe. The aggregates were called cloucis by Shane, but are presently known as superclusters. With Gerald E. Kron, he carried out photoelectric studies of galaxies. They confirmed Walter Baade's result that the pre- vious photographic photometry by Hubble, based on stan- darcis in Selected Areas, was in error by almost one magni- tude. Shane and Kron derived new data for the galactic extinction ant] from their measurements drew refined boundaries of the zone of avoidance of galaxies. Shane and Wirtanen published counts of the numbers of detected galaxies in each square degree of the sky covered by their photographs. They had clone the actual counting in 10' squares; the total number of one-ancI-a-half million such _1_ _ _ 1, 1 . . 1 1 squares shows the immensity of work involved and the im- practicality of publishing the counts in detail. Later, however, the complete ant! cletailect numbers were transferred to mag- netic tapes by P. I. E. Peebles at Princeton. Peebles recognized that the counts were a goIcI mine for cosmological studies of structure in the universe, being the only existing statistically uniform, comprehensive set of data covering a large fraction of the celestial sphere. The main result to emerge from Pee- ble's theoretical analysis was that the galaxy clustering shows no characteristic length scales. The covariance function is a

496 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS power-law out to very large distances. This suggests that the clustering grew out of a scale-force distribution of small den- sity irregularities produced in the "Big Bang." Peebles cle- rived many interesting new results on the distribution of gal- axies from these cletailed counts. Thus Shane and Wirtanen's publications inspired other researchers to analyze and discuss their data. After the whole set of 1,246 photographs hac! been taken with the 20-inch Carnegie astrograph, Shane decicled to pho- tograph the sky again, with a smaller-aperture, wider-field telescope that would not reach objects as faint as those recorcled during the proper motion program. Counts of galaxies on these plates would give information on the dis- tribution of galaxies at a brighter magnitude limit. He bor- rowed a Ross five-inch lens from Mount Wilson Observatory and took all the photographs, but then cleciclect to forego the counting. This set of photographs, however, known as the Lick Sky Atlas, turned out to be quite useful to astronomers as a reference atlas. Many copies have been distributed in the United States and abroad. An extension of this atlas to the Southern Hemisphere was carried out at Mount John Obser- vatory of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. ADMINISTRATION Shane's important contributions to science were by no means limited to his personal research. At Berkeley, Shane lunched regularly at the Faculty Club, the center of the pro- fessors' informal activities in the years between the wars. He was personable, intelligent, hare! working, and absolutely trustworthy. He became acquainted with faculty members from all over the campus, ant] many of his friends later be- came department chairmen, directors, and deans. One friend, Commander Chester W. Nimitz, organized the first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit in the country at

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 497 Berkeley in 1926, which he heacled for three years before being reassigned to sea duty. Years later, as the victor of the Pacific Sea War, he became Fleet Admiral Nimitz. He was appointed a University of California Regent in 1948 ant] chairman of the Lick Observatory Committee in 1951. Shane's friends quickly became aware of his interest in university affairs, particularly those concerned with academic excellence. In consequence he was appointed to the Com- mittee on Schools, which visited California high schools and evaluatecl them as sources of students for the University of California. Later he served on the Budget Committee, whose decisions are crucial in faculty promotions, first as a member and later as chairman, and then on the Committee on Courses. He was elected vice-chairman of the Academic Sen- ate and presicled whenever the ex-officio chairman, Uni- versity president Robert G. Sproul, was absent. Sproul and Shane cooperated closely until 1958 when they both retired. In 1942, Ernest O. Lawrence, recognizing Shane's talent in administration, asked him to take over some of the re- sponsibilities of the wartime work going on in his Radiation Laboratory. Later, at the personal request of General Leslie R. Groves, Shane went to Los Alamos as assistant director for scientific personnel uncier I. Robert Oppenheimer. Shane's calm manner, impeccable conservative creclentials, and wide acquaintance among scientists were important qualifications for both these posts. When he witnesses! the first test of the atomic bomb, at the Trinity site near Alamogorclo on July 16, 1945, he knew the war would soon be over. When Wright had retired as director of Lick Observatory in 1942, President Sprout hac! asked Shane to assume the post. He tract cleclined the offer because of his wartime duties, recommencting that Joseph H. Moore, already sixty-four years oIcl, be appointed for the duration of the war. After Hiroshima, Sproul renewed the over and Shane accepted.

498 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS He took up the post late in 1945. One of the first things Shane ctic! as director was to begin hoisting staff meetings to discuss anc! seek advice on the future of the Observatory, as well as on current problems. This was a major departure from the previous rather autocratic regimes. Shane's leact- ership was particularly prominent in the design anct con- struction of the 120-inch telescope, then the second largest in the world. By the time of his retirement from the clirec- torship in 195S, it was nearly reacly for regular operation. From the clays of W. W. Campbell, every Lick director had recognized the need for a new large reflecting telescope to put the Observatory back at the frontier of observational re- search. Campbell, Robert G. Aitken, Wright, and Moore hacl each in his turn tried to obtain the necessary funds. Shane, during his years in Berkeley, had probably cliscussed the idea with Sproul. In the early days of WorIcl War IT, the president includes! the telescope project in the University of California's huge, ten-year building program planned to begin after the war. Sprout wanted Shane to take charge of the advance plan- ning for the telescope. The Los Alamos administrator man- agec! to clo so by correspondence and in one quick trip to California in March 1945. He headect a committee whose members he himself tract recommenclecT to the president. They incluclecI Joseph H. Moore; Nicholas U. Mayall, then a young Lick staff member on leave for wartime technical work in Pasadena; Walter S. Adams, director of Mount Wilson Ob- servatory; ant! Tra S. Bowen of the California Institute of Technology. Shane's basic strategy was to use as much as pos- sible of the Pasadena expertise and experience gained on the 200-inch project and to preserve the California money for building the telescope. John A. Anderson, who tract super- visecl the Palomar telescope project, also met with the com- mittee, and Walter Baacle providecl copious advice. Mayall

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 499 and Gerald E. Kron, another Lick staff member on leave for war work in Southern California, pressed intensively for as large a telescope as the available money wouIc! buy. Shane supporter! them and the decision was quickly reached to go for a 120-inch reflector. As soon as the two atomic bombs had been droppect and it became clear that Japan wouIc! surrender, Shane resigner] his Los Alamos post ant! hurried back to California. From then on much of his time, even before he formally took over the Lick directorship on December I, 1945, was concerned with making the telescope a reality. He immediately became involved in defending the tele- scope budget item before the Legislature, which had first cleleted it then, after some politicking between the senators and the governor, restored it ant! passed the bill. Next Shane had to hire engineers, familiarize them with astronomical re- quirements, ant] supervise their work. Prior to the construc- tion of the telescope, he directed the builcting of its clome, inclucling the optical shop ant! testing facilities. He had to go back to President Sprout several times for additional funcis when costs outran the early plans. Shane hoped to have the telescope operational before his retirement from the direc- torship but encountered delays. His successor, Albert E. Whitforct, heaclec! the telescope's completion. Since galaxies constituted one of the important research topics at Mount Wilson anct Palomar Observatories, Shane was instrumental in arranging regular informal meetings be- tween their astronomers working in this field! and those at Lick. The meetings were hell! for a number of years, alter- nately at Mount Hamilton and in Pasadena. In these ctiscus- sions, Hubble encouraged Shane to undertake the counting of galaxies. In 1948 Shane recommended Hubble very strongly for a University of California honorary degree, writ- ing that "no living astronomer has done so much as he to

500 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS enlarge and clarify our views of the universe as a whole." The following year the Lick director escorted Hubble to the Berkeley graduation ceremony where the University con- ferrec] an honorary cloctorate of laws on the great observa- tional cosmologist. Shortly before his retirement from the Lick directorship, Shane was appointee! to the Board of Directors of the Asso- ciation of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). He served as chairman of its Scientific Committee until 1959, when he became president. He was thus among AURA,s lead- ers during its early years, inclucting the founcling of Kitt Peak National Observatory with headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, and the inception of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observa- tory in Chile. He was a close friend of Robert R. McMath, the first president and later chairman of the boarct of AURA. Shane traveled to Chile several times as an advisor in the selection of the site for the plannecl observatory. Shane strongly recommended Nicholas U. Mayall for ap- pointment as the seconct director of Kitt Peak National Ob- servatory, to succeec! Aclen B. Meinel. Mayall left Lick to ac- cept the position in 1960. In his first years at Kitt Peak, he clepencled heavily on Shane for advice and counsel. They had frequent telephone discussions, and after Shane left the AURA board in 1962 they correspondecl regularly on a per- sonal basis until his cleath. Shane was also particularly interested in helping to de- velop astronomy in New Zealand. While still director, he in- vited Ivan Thomsen from the Carter Observatory in Wel- lington to Lick to familiarize himself with research at a major astronomical institution. In subsequent correspondence and personal meetings, especially with Frank M. Bateson, Shane urged a site survey in New Zealand for a possible new obser- vatory. The survey was carried out and ultimately an obser- vatory was established on Mount John, in a cooperative ar-

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 501 rangement between the University of Canterbury and the University of Pennsylvania. ECHELLE SPECTROGRAPH It is not generally known that Shane first suggested the iclea of the astronomical echelie spectrograph, essentially in its present-day form. He clic! this in 1946, when he and other Lick astronomers were planning the ~ 20-inch reflector. Shane wanted to equip the telescope with a high-dispersion instrument for stellar spectroscopy but hoped to avoid] builct- ing a coucle focus like that used for this type of work at Mount Wilson and planner! for Palomar. Instead he wished to design a high-dispersion spectrograph to be used at the Cassegrain focus, behind the primary mirror. Such an arrangement wouIc! save starlight and money anc! avoicT several compli- cations in the design of the telescope. Shane realized that a meclium-clispersion spectrograph, the type traditionally placed at the Cassegrain focus, could not simply be scaled up to give the high-clispersion that a couple spectrograph could provide. From his experience in solar line-profile work and labo- ratory spectroscopy, Shane was aware of the "echellettes" that hacl been clevelopecl by Robert W. Wood at Johns Hopkins University. They were essentially coarse reflection gratings, ruled with a blaze that concentrated their light into high spec- tral orders, giving high angular dispersion. Laboratory spec- troscopists user! them, as Shane knew, to get very high clis- persion and thus resolve the fine structure of incliviclual spectral lines. He realized that, combined with only a moderate focal- length camera, such an echellette couIcl provide the high clis- persion needed! by astronomers in a relatively small instru- ment, which conic! be mounted at the Cassegrain focus. How- ever, the difficulty was that an echellette, since it worked in a

502 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS high spectral order, necessarily produced not a single long spectrum, but rather one composed of many overlapping or- ders. This was no problem in the laboratory, where a single emission line could be studied with very little danger that another line from a different order would accidentally co- incide with it. It would be fatal for stars with continuous spectra. Shane's solution was to cross the echellette with a small prism, which would provide just the right amount of devia- tion perpendicular to the main dispersion to separate the different orders. Thus several thousand Angstrom units of spectrum could be mapped out in many orders onto a single rectangular photographic plate. In this way the best field of the optics would be effectively utilized, and a large spectral range could be photographed in a single exposure with min- imum light loss. Previous laboratory spectroscopists had occasionally used cross-dispersion to get rid of unwanted or- ders but no one had ever mapped out the spectrum in a two- dimensional format like this. Shane wrote Wood in April of 1946 outlining these ideas and providing a specific numerical example of the design. He asked for the laboratory spectroscopist's comments and inquired whether he could provide a suitable echellette. Shane followed up his letter with a visit to Wood's laboratory in Baltimore in May. That summer Wood set up a trial version of the system in the barn of his vacation retreat on Long Island and tested it visually with sunlight. The whole solar spectrum from the violet to the red was mapped out between the twelfth and seventeenth orders and despite "a rather poor echellette," wrote Wood, "lilt looks like an awfully good idea to me." He later recorded the solar spectrum photo- graphically with this system. He presented a paper on this "new method of employing echellettes" at the meeting of the Optical Society of America

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 503 in New York that fall. In both his oral presentation and his later written version of the paper Woos! credited Shane with the original iclea.~ Spectroscopist George R. Harrison, who was presicting at the session at which Wood presented this paper and who, according to the latter, "said that he consid- ered this the greatest advance in spectroscopy since the in- vention by Rowland of the concave grating!", took up the idea ant! pushed it further. Harrison, at his Massachusetts Institute of Technology spectroscopy laboratory, was (level- oping very similar "echelles," ant! he cliscussecl in detail the design considerations for using them most electively to ob- tain a large spectral range at high dispersion. In his published papers he also generously crectitect Shane with the original suggestion.2 Among other items, Harrison stated that a prism (which Shane hac! originally suggested) is more effective as the cross-dispersing element than a grating (which Woocl had used). The novelty of Shane's idea illustrates his wide range of knowledge and quick mind. In 1946 it was ahead of its time, however, for neither echellettes nor echelles couch be ob- tained that were large enough and suitably blazed. Shane was not able to build a Cassegrain echelle spectrograph for the 120-inch reflector. Instead, a very good coude spectrograph was constructed, uncler the supervision of George H. Herbig, to provide high dispersion. More recently, however, echelle spectrographs have been put into use on many astronomical ' R. W. Wood, "Concave Replica Gratings, and a New Method of Employ- ing Echellettes," Journal of the Optical Society of America, 36(1946):715; "The Use of Echellette Gratings in High Orders,"Journal of the Optical Society of America, 37(1947): 733-37. 2 G. R. Harrison, PhysicalReview, "The Production of Diffraction Gratings. II. The Design of Echelle Gratings and Spectrographs," 39(1949):522-28; G. R. Harrison, J. E. Archer and J. Camus, "A Fixed-focus Broad-range Echelle Spectrograph of High Speed and Resolving Power," Journal of the Optical Society of America, 42(1952): 706-12.

504 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS telescopes, including the Shane 120-inch, usually for mod- erate dispersion rather than for high. OTHER ASPECTS During Shane's many years on the Berkeley faculty, he spent more time on teaching than on research or administra- tion. He taught considerably more than would normally have been expected of him, and he considered it the most impor- tant and rewarding part of his work. He was a good teacher, and as the University of California was one of the leading centers of graduate work in astronomy in the world, in his astrophysics classes he taught many students who later be- came outstanding researchers. Among them were, as under- graduates, Olin C. Wilson and Lawrence H. Aller, and as graduate students, Louis Berman, Fred L. Whipple, Nicholas U. Mayall, Daniel M. Popper, Horace W. Babcock, and Gerald E. Kron. Shane was also pleased to have attracted many of the best physics students—some of whom later became quite famous to his astrophysics course. One, who remained his lifelong friend, was Edward U. Condon. Shane hac! many interests outside astronomy and science. He was a longtime member of the Chit-Chat Club in San Francisco, a group of men interested in the arts, science, anti current affairs. He was deeply interested in all things Icelan- clic, especially Icelandic literature and more particularly the sagas. Shane made two long visits to [celanct in 1967 and 196S, traveling around much of the island. He had several discussions of ancient Icelanclic history with Kristian Elojarn, the director of the National Museum in Reykjavik in 1967, who had become president of the country by the following year. Shane was an avid reader. He had a deep interest in bi- ographies of world leaclers and in both world history and the history of California especially of the Auburn, San Fran-

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 505 cisco, Mount Hamilton, and Santa Cruz regions where he had lived. He was a raconteur of the first orcler, with an apt story rat . tor every occasion. FAMILY LIFE Donald and Mary Shane were an exceptionally close and cooperative married couple, and Mary had an important role in Donald's personal anc! professional life. As Mary Lea Heger she gracluated from the University of California in 1919, anc! she received her Ph.D. degree in astronomy in 1924. In her thesis work at Lick Observatory she detected the presence of sodium atoms in interstellar space, a major dis- covery. She clid not pursue an astronomical career, however, being fully occupied first with raising two small chilclren, then later as the ctirector's wife, with the duties of being the hostess at Lick Observatory. On remote Mount Hamilton there were many important scientific visitors from the United States and abroad. Throughout her experiences with them she retained her strong interest in astronomy and a particular attachment to Lick Observatory. When Donalc! Shane was chairman of the Local Organiz- ing Committee for the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, held at Berkeley in 1961, Mary carried a heavy load. She plannecI, organized the office work, and made arrangements for entertaining more than seven hun- ctrecl participating astronomers a total of about a thousand guests inclu(ling spouses. An official record of thanks to Donald and Mary Shane can be found in the Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, which quotes Dr. Alena G. Massevitch, speaking for the visitors from abroad: "No words of mine can convey adequate thanks to them for their arduous efforts over many months; the success of these ef- forts is clear from the perfection of the organization, and our appreciation is unlimitecl."

506 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Mary Shane also clemonstratecI her organizational talent anc! devotion in establishing the Lick Observatory Archives, renamed the Mary Lea Shane Archives in 1982. She con- ceivec! the idea of converting the old Lick Observatory files, dating from 1876, into an organized source of historical in- formation. She began the project on Mount Hamilton. It reacher! its full fruition when the Lick headquarters were movec! to the new Santa Cruz campus of the University of California in 1966. Mary Shane persuaded Chancellor Dean E. McHenry and University Librarian DonalcI T. Clark to provide space for the Lick Archives in the University Library. Uncler her leaclership and with her active participation, a group of declicatec! volunteers iclentifiecT, classified, ant! cat- aloguccl thousands of letters, clippings, and photographs. Letters from almost every notable American astronomer since Simon Newcomb, as well as from many European scien- tists, can be founct in the Shane Archives. RETIREMENT YEARS After retirement Donald anct Mary Shane livecl at their home in the redwoods at Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz. Their American and foreign friends, mostly astronomers and their families, frequently visited them. The Shanes had a swimming pool and a separate guest house for their visitors. In the years 1962 through 1965, the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus physical plan was being formulatecl, and Chancellor McHenry frequently sought Shane's advice. As an emeritus faculty member, Shane served on the Campus Plan- ning Committee for two of those early years. He was a regular participant in informal meetings of the Santa Cruz faculty emeriti group. Its members enjoyed listening to Shane's rem- iniscences, drawn from his exceptional memory and flavored with his characteristic wit and humor. He recollectecI many

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 507 events anc! noted personalities from his seven clecades of as- sociation with the University of California. Leukemia finally slowed him down, anct he ctied at the age of eighty-seven on March 19, 1983. His wife Mary crier! of a heart attack on July 13, 1983, her eighty-sixth birthday. They are survived by their sons Charles Nelson Shane, presently associate clean at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, Massachusetts, and William Whitney Shane, a professor and raclio astronomer at the University of Nijmegen in the NetherIancts, as well as by six grandchildren and three great-grancichildren. Honors were bestowed upon Donald Shane for his many achievements. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1955 ant] to the National Academy of Sciences in 1961. He was awarder! an honorary LL.D. degree by the Uni- versity of California in 1965, and the 120-inch telescope that he initiated was named after him in 1978. Shane was an As- sociate of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. The minor planet 1961 TE, cliscoverec! at Goethe Link Observatory, Indiana University, was named (1994) Shane in his honor in 1981. WE ARE GRATEFUL to archivists at the Niels Bohr Library of the American Institute of Physics and at the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory for making available their rich stores of infor- mation for this biography. Transcripts of several interviews Donald Shane gave to historians were especially useful, as were his own handwritten autobiographical notes, composed in the last years of his life. His published scientific papers and our personal recollec- tions provided supplementary sources.

508 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1914 With Julia I. McKay. Ephemeris of Comet f 1913 (Delavan). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:50. With S. B. Nicholson. Elements and ephemeris of Comet f 1913 (Delavan). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:64-66. With Sophia H. Levy. Second elements of Comet a 1914 (Kritzin- ger). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:67-68. With R. T. Crawford. Elements and ephemeris of Comet c 1914 (Neujmin). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:70. With R. T. Crawford. Third elements and ephemeris of Comet c 1914 (Neujmin). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:87-88. With Sophia H. Levy. Elements and ephemeris of Comet e 1914 (Campbell). Lick Obs. Bull., 8:91-92. 1919 With l. H. Moore. The form of the green nebular bands in Nova Aquilae III. Lick Obs. Bull., 10:32-35. With J. H. Moore. The green nebular bands in Nova Aquilae No. 3. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 31:269-72. The Ha line in 0 Ceti. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 31:318-19. 1920 The spectra of certain N stars. Lick Obs. Bull., 10:79-92. Observations of the spectrum 0 Ceti in 1919. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 32:234-36. The spectrum of o Ceti in 1919. Lick Obs. Bull., 10:131-34. 1923 With Mary Lea Shane. Elements and opposition ephemeris of minor planet 1922 ND (Y.0.3~. Lick Obs. Bull., 11:55. With i. A. Pearce. Preliminary elements of minor planet 1922 MZ (Y.0.5~. Lick Obs. Bull., 11:56. 1926 The spectrum of the nova in NGC 4303. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 38: 182-83.

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 1927 509 Photographs of the lunar eclipse of June 15. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 39:226-27. With R. T. Crawford. The longitude of the Students' Observatory, University of California, Berkeley, California. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 39:298-305. 1928 The spectra of carbon stars. Lick Obs. Bull., 13: 123-29. 1932 The photometry of lines in the solar spectrum. Lick Obs. Bull., 16:76-89. Application of the interferometer to the observation of the green coronal line. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 44:358-60. 1933 With F. H. Spedding and N. S. Grace. Fine structure of H2 alpha. Phys. Rev., 44:58. 1935 With F. H. Spedding. A spectroscopic determination of e/m. Phys. Rev., 47:33-37. With F. H. Spedding and N. S. Grace. The fine structure of Ha. Phys. Rev., 47: 38-44. 1936 With W. F. Meyer. The determination of time from shadows shown on a photograph. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 48:90-96. 1939 Limb-darkening and the absorption coefficient. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 51:315-20. 1941 Profiles of the D lines in the solar spectrum. Lick Obs. Bull., 19:119-30.

510 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 1947 The program of the Carnegie 20-inch astrograph. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 59: 182-83. 1950 With C. A. Wirtanen. Distribution of extragalactic nebulae in three selected areas. Proc. Philos. Soc., 94: 13 -17. 1953 With }. Neyman and E. L. Scott. On the spatial distribution of gal- axies. A specific model. Astrophys. .}, 1 1 7 :92-1 33. 1954 With C. A. Wirtanen. The distribution of the extragalactic nebulae. Astron. }, 59: 285 - 304. With E. L. Scott and M. D. Swanson. Comparison of the synthetic and actual distribution of galaxies on a photographic plate. As- trophys. J., 119:91-112. With }. Neyman and E. L. Scott. The index of clumpiness of the distribution of images of galaxies. Astrophys. J. Suppl., 1 ?69- 93. With S. Vasilevskis. The precision of the determination of star mo- tions with respect to the extragalactic nebulae. Trans. Int. Astron. Union, 8:794-97. 1956 The distribution of extragalactic nebulae. II. Astron. }., 61:292- 99. Withy. Neymann and E. L. Scott. Statistics of images of galaxies with particular reference to clustering. In: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Berkeley, 1955, ed. J. Neyman, vol. 3, pp. 75-111. Contributions to Astronomy and Astrophysics. Berkeley: University of California Press. The distribution of the galaxies. Vistas Astron., 2: 1574-84.

CHARLES DONALD SHANK 1958 511 Radio astronomy in 1890: a proposed experiment. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 70:303-4. A new sky atlas. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac., 70:609-10. 1959 With C. A. Wirtanen and U. Steinlin. Distribution of extragalactic nebulae. III. Astron. I., 64:197 - 219. 1960 With N. U. Mayall and E. L. Scott. Statistical problems in the study of galaxies. Bull. Stat. Inst., 37:35-63. 1967 The distribution of galaxies. Publ. Lick Obs 1971 ., 22~11:1-59. With S. Vasilevskis and A. Klemola. Catalogue of the proper mo- tions of 8790 stars with reference to galaxies. Publ. Lick Obs., 22~2~: 1-75. With N. A. Doughty and F. B. Wood. The Mount John University Pho- tographic Sky Survey and the Canterbury Sky Atlas (Australia'. Can- terbury, Australia: University of Canterbury. 1974 With G. E. Kron. Galaxy magnitudes, the dependence of photo- electric measures on aperture. Astrophys. Space Sci., 27:233- 40. With G. E. Kron. Galaxy magnitudes, the limiting magnitude of the Lick galaxy survey. Astrophys. Space Sci., 30: 127-32. 1975 Distribution of galaxies. In: Galaxies and the Universe, ed. Allan Sandage, Mary Sandage, and Jerome Kristian, pp. 647-63. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1976 With G. E. Kron. Galaxy magnitudes in the Zwicky and Shapley- Ames catalogues. Astrophys. Space Sci., 39:401-7.

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