Albert William Recht (March 22, 1898 – January 8, 1962) was an American astronomer, mathematician and educator. He had a 30-year career at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

. The crater Recht located on the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

is named after him.

Early life and education

Recht was born in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, Ohio. He earned a Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1939.

Career

Initially he applied to work as a Spanish instructor at

. Instead he was hired by the Mathematics Department. He became chair of the mathematics department in 1943–44 and 1947–49. While at the university he pursued his interest in astronomy, working at the Chamberlin Observatory under the instruction of Herbert Howe. In 1926 Recht became director of the observatory, and full director in 1928. Over the following eleven years he studied during the summer months to earn his Ph.D. from the

in 1939, working at

Yerkes Observatory Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 until 2018. O ...

. He did his thesis work on the 6P/d'Arrest comet. Following his graduation, he was most noted for his work on the popularization of astronomy. During the 1950s he began a popular program of public viewing nights at the observatory. However his efforts to preserve the observatory at the time were unsuccessful.

References

External links

Chamberlin Observatory Tour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Recht, Albert William 1898 births 1962 deaths American astronomers