Henry Crew

Who was Henry Crew?

Henry Crew was an American physicist and astronomer.

Born in Richmond, Ohio, the son of William H. Crew and Deborah Ann, he attended high school in Wilmington, Ohio then matriculated to Princeton University in 1878. He graduated with an A.B. in physics 1882 and was awarded a graduate fellowship at the university for a year, which he spent at the Princeton laboratory. In 1883 he traveled for a semester overseas to study physics in Berlin, returning in 1884 to attend graduate school at the Johns Hopkins University. Three years later he was awarded a Ph.D. in physics with a thesis on "Doppler Determination of the Rotation Period of the Sun for Various Heliocentric Latitudes."

After a term with an associateship in physics at Johns Hopkins, he became an assistant instructor of physics at Haverford College from 1888–1892. During his last year at Haverford, Henry Crew was married to Helen C. Coale, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. He then joined the staff of the Lick Observatory in 1892, but soon found himself entangled in the political atmosphere. That year he was awarded the position of Fayerweather professor of physics at Northwestern University, which he accepted.