LSA class of December, 1963
Year of Memory: 1961-63
A highly rewarding career of more than half a century as a planetarium professional might never have happened were it not for tip and follow up visit to what was then the “Exhibit Museum” in 1961. I was in my junior year at Michigan when astronomy lab instructor and mentor Charles Cowley told me about an employment opportunity. Cowley’s wife Anne, who like her husband was pursuing graduate studies in astronomy, was leaving a part-time position as a presenter in the Museum’s planetarium. “Talk to a lady named Heather Thorpe” he advised.
I beat a hasty trail to the facility in the venerable Ruthven Museums Building, finding Heather Thorpe an engaging person who was all business. She took a chance on a brash, untested “redhead.” It probably did not hurt when I told her I had built a basement planetarium in my home in North Muskegon while in high school, and with Charles Cowley’s encouragement, had presented shows at the planetarium in Angell Hall during Astronomy Department open houses.
I initially did mostly school presentations under tutelage of Thorpe and longtime weekend presenter Eileen Starr. When Starr moved on, I started doing weekend shows as well. “The Sky Tonight,” a basic current sky talk, was standard fare. The Spitz model A star projector was also pretty basic, motorized only for daily motion of the sky. Planet and moon positions had to be preset. The presenter stood in the center of the room, under an 18 foot diameter dome, controlling everything from a console at the base of the projector.
The growing popularity of the planetarium, and “spring rush” of school shows one after another found me losing my edge, and I was unavailable at times due to a busy academic schedule. Thorpe agreed that we needed more presenters, adding to a stream of future planetarium professionals – beginning with Starr – that has flowed continuously from under that tiny but highly significant dome on the fourth floor of the Exhibit Museum for decades.
Two notables I personally worked with while still at Michigan (many more would follow over the years) were Dennis Sunal, who went on to become a co-founder of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, and the legendary Bob Victor, who originated (and still contributes to) the widely distributed Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar issued from Michigan State University.
Our expanding student staff talked about introducing background music into our presentations, and also adding a slide projector and special effects. Thorpe and other Museum staff were cooperative in so far as resources would permit. I found myself spending more and more time at the Exhibit Museum. Entering my senior year, it was becoming abundantly clear what my life’s calling would be. Professional curators and exhibit preparers at the Museum were cordial and supportive of their sometimes overly enthusiastic young colleague. Memorable among them besides Thorpe was a fabrication specialist and all round handyman by the name of Joe Knueppelholz. The German immigrant had an easy going personality and a solution for just about any construction or electrical wiring issue that came up.
He found a way to increase the capacity of the console to include power switches and fade knobs to control auxiliary projectors and background music. I remember researching the components for the planetarium’s first decent sound system and working with Joe to install behind-the-dome speakers to provide stereo sound. To me, it was an impressive upgrade.
In the summer of ‘63, it was time to give the interior of the 18-foot-fabric projection dome a much needed paint job. Others joined me in slapping paint around its periphery, but it fell to Joe to paint the overhead area while standing on the TOP, not the top rung, of a tall step ladder. I can still vividly recall one of the most remarkable “balancing acts” I have ever witnessed.
The slide and special effects projectors allowed introduction of a few theme-based shows to supplement the venerable “Sky Tonight.” I vaguely remember shows about the stars visible over the southern hemisphere, a trip to the north pole, and one about seasonal changes. Other topics have become lost in the mists of time.
What surely has not gotten lost, and never will, is realization that our group started an amazing tradition of innovation that still rises from within that tiny dome. It would be difficult to name all of the people who, like me, began or enhanced their planetarium careers there. Several who come clearly to mind, in addition to the aforementioned Starr and Victor, are John Mosley, who went on to the famed Griffith Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles and for years edited the journal of the International Planetarium Society, and Garry Beckstrom, whose first director’s job was at the Exhibit Museum before going on to positions at Longway Planetarium in Flint and the new Delta College Planetarium in Bay City. Todd Slisher followed his passion as an innovative student presenter with planetarium positions in Columbia, South Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, and Detroit Science Center. He is now Executive Director of the Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium in Flint. Many more examples could be cited.
A recollection from September of 1963 stands out more clearly than any other from my years on campus in Ann Arbor. A Museum colleague had earlier told me about a position she had heard about for a lead curator at the new planetarium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Graduation was looming and I had already decided to put grad school on hold for a while, so I enthusiastically applied. I thought the interview over the summer had gone well, but despite favorable letters of recommendation from Heather Thorpe and others, I had heard nothing for weeks. I was preparing for disappointment.
As I arrived back at my rooming house that warm Saturday after doing the afternoon planetarium shows at the Museum, the landlady called my attention to a letter from the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Trembling as I opened it, I only read the first line from then Assistant Museum Director W.D. Frankforter: —- “It gives me pleasure to inform you that you have been appointed “ —- before running around to hug everyone I could find! It was the start of a dream career that extended across close to four decades. As stated earlier, that opportunity may have never come without the training, experience, and support acquired at the “Exhibit Museum.”
The Museum’s name was changed to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History a number of years back, and as 2018 dawns, the current facility will go dark. As plans move forward to renovate Ruthven to take on a new function within the University community, the striking new Biological Sciences Building housing a new Museum of Natural History and Digital Dome Theater will be nearing completion right next door. Several exhibit galleries and the new Digital Dome Theater will open to the public in the spring of 2019.
Benefits from many years at the Grand Rapids Public Museum have enabled me to initiate something special for the institution that provided a life changing opportunity many years ago. The David L. DeBruyn Digital Dome Theater Student Internship Fund at Michigan will contribute to providing future planetarium professionals opportunities in a state-of-the-art planetarium similar to those extended to me and many others in its smaller, less sophisticated, but highly significant predecessor.
