Director, Detroit Observatory 1946-60
records (Box 16)
Leo Goldberg was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 26, 1913, the son of Polish immigrants. In 1922, a fire in their apartment building killed his mother and younger brother, hospitalizing Leo for many months. Later, after excelling in science and mathematics in school, Goldberg won a scholarship to Harvard, where he studied solar and stellar spectra, receiving a Ph.D. in 1938. Following graduation, Goldberg came to the University of Michigan. During the war, he worked on an antisubmarine project and other military-related research at the McMath-Hulbert Observatory. Goldberg accepted the directorship of the UM Observatories in 1946, and he proved a remarkable organizer and administrator. He recruited a strong new staff and established a graduate program in astrophysics. In 1956, Goldberg became chairman of the U.S. National Committee for the International Astronomical Union (later becoming vice president and president), and in 1958 sat on the newly formed Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1960, Goldberg returned to Harvard for the opportunity to conduct space research and start an astrophysics laboratory. He became the director of the Harvard Observatory in 1966, and the director of the Kitt Peak Observatory in 1971. Goldberg died of lung cancer in 1987 in Tucson, Arizona.
