of Michigan faculty and staff portrait
collection
DIRECTOR 1905-26 (AND ACTING DIRECTOR 1891-92)
William Joseph Hussey was born on August 10, 1862 at Mendon, Ohio. Hussey received a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1889. He experienced delays in his studies due to lack of funds, during which time he worked as a school principal in Ohio. Following graduation, Hussey became a Mathematics instructor at the University of Michigan, and was appointed in 1891 as an Astronomy instructor and acting director of the Detroit Observatory. He left the Observatory in 1926 to continue his illustrious career, primarily at the Lick Observatory at the University of California, studying comets and double stars. As Director of the Detroit Observatory beginning in 1905, Hussey devoted his time to expansion. He supervised the construction of a new building with a 37 1/2-inch reflecting telescope for important spectrographic studies, installed new seismological equipment, recruited students, hired new staff to teach the expanded class, and assisted in creating UM observatories in South America and South Africa. He died in 1926 while on the way to South Africa to realize his dream of installing a 27-inch refractor.
