William Edmund Harper, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWilliam Edmund Harper
Canadian astronomer
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Ontario, Canada
About William Edmund Harper
- William Edmund Harper, March 20, 1878 – June 14, 1940, (age 62) was a Canadian astronomer. William Harper was born in Dobbington, Ontario.
- He attended high school in Owen Sound, then taught for three years following his graduation.
- When he had sufficient funds, in 1902 he entered the University of Toronto. He graduated in 1906 and became a member of the staff at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- He worked with the astrophysics staff, measuring the radial velocity of stars and determining the orbits of spectroscopic binaries.
- (The latter are binary star systems that could not be resolved with a telescope, but their orbital motions could be studied due to the doppler effect on their spectrum.) He was awarded his master's degree in 1907 from the University of Toronto.
- In 1909 he was married to Maude Eugenia Hall.
- They had two daughters. The need for more powerful equipment was becoming apparent, and Dr.
- Harper suggested Victoria as a suitable location.
- In 1913, the government approved the project and Dr.
- Harper was sent to make measurements of the observing conditions at various sites.
- Observatory Hill was finally selected as the location.
- In 1918 the observatory was completed, and a year later Dr.
- Harper was transferred to the site.
- He would become assistant director in 1924, then the observatory's second director in 1936. Most of his career was spent in the spectroscopic study of stars.
- He published about fifty papers, and in 1924 a table of 1100 parallax measurements.
- He was also a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, being awarded their gold medal, then becoming a Fellow in 1913.
- He serving as president of that organization 1928-29.
- In 1935 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto. By 1938 he was suffering from ill-health, which was further undermined by a bout of pneumonia while representing Canada at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Stockholm.
- He died from a relapse of the disease.
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