Hamilton Jeffers

Who was Hamilton Jeffers?

Hamilton Moore Jeffers was a noted astronomer.

Jeffers was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, to Presbyterian minister William Hamilton Jeffers, and Annie Robinson Tuttle. His elder brother Robinson Jeffers would become a noted poet.

Hamilton Jeffers was graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1917, and received a doctorate in astronomy from the same institution in 1921. As a graduate student, he was particularly noted at the university's Lick Observatory for the quality of his cometary observations.

In February, 1921, he made instructor of astronomy at the State University of Iowa, and remained so for slightly less than three years. In 1924, he became an Assistant Astronomer at the Lick Observatory, where he remained until his retirement in 1961, with the exception of the period of 1941 to 1945, during which he took leave to contribute to the war effort. In 1933, he became an Associate Astronomer; and in 1938 he became a full Astronomer.

Jeffers was noted for the accuracy and precision of his work, which included extensive observations of double stars.

During the war years, Jeffers served first at a radiation laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then as an operations analyst in Alaska and in India.