of Michigan Observatory records (Box 16)
DIRECTOR 1927-29 (ACTING DIRECTOR 1926)
Ralph Hamilton Curtiss was born in Derby, Connecticut on February 8, 1880. He received a B.S. in 1901 and Ph.D. in 1905 from the University of California. Curtiss then worked at the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh until he came to the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor of Astronomy in 1907. By 1918, Curtiss was named Professor of Astronomy and Assistant Director of the Detroit Observatory. While Director Hussey was on leave in Argentina at the University of La Plata, Curtiss managed the Observatory and assumed heavy teaching responsibilities. When news of Hussey’s death reached Ann Arbor, Ralph Curtiss was named Acting Director of the Observatory and was made Director in March 1927. Curtiss took over the responsibility of directing the South Africa expedition to establish the Lamont-Hussey Observatory, though he remained in Ann Arbor. He completed Hussey’s efforts to establish a new students’ observatory atop Angell Hall, which opened in 1927 and began holding popular visitors’ nights that continue today. In 1929, Curtiss received approval from the Regents to purchase land west of Ann Arbor for a new observatory with up-to-date instruments (the future site for the Peach Mountain Observatory). Curtiss took ill suddenly and died on Christmas day, 1929.
