Father Francis J. Heyden (May 3, 1907 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

– February 8, 1991 in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, Philippines), was an American

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priest and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

. He served as Director of the Georgetown University Observatory from 1950 to 1972. After the Georgetown Observatory was closed he moved to the

Manila Observatory The Manila Observatory is a non-profit research institute housed on the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. It was founded by the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, in 1865 as the Observatorio Meteo ...

Early life

He was born in Buffalo, New York in 1907. His father was a pharmacist who died early as a result of a baseball injury. His mother left with him had his older a brother as teenagers. He graduated from

Canisius High School Canisius High School is a Catholic, private college-preparatory school for young men run by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus in Buffalo, New York, United States, just north of the Delaware Avenue Historic District. Founded in 1 ...

in Buffalo. he attended

Woodstock College Woodstock College was a Jesuit seminary that existed from 1869 to 1974. It was the oldest Jesuit seminary in the United States. The school was located in Woodstock, Maryland, west of Baltimore, from its establishment until 1969, when it moved to ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

where he earned a A.B. degree in 1930, and a Master's in 1931.

Entering the Jesuit Order

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1924 directly after graduating from Canisius.

Early Education

After graduation from Woodstock College, he accepted an appointment at the Astronomical Division of the Manila Observatory in the Philippines where he served until 1934. He then returned to Woodstock and completed his theological studies and was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1938. He entered

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

to complete a master's in Astronomy in 1942, and completed a Ph.D. in 1944. He was also a teaching fellow during that time, and did post-doctoral research with Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and

Bart Bok Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, ...

Georgetown Observatory

Heyden had planned to return to Manila but the war made this impossible. He took a post at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. as an assistant professor in 1945 under the director Fr. Paul A. McNally. He was appointed to be the observatories director in 1948. He undertook seven expeditions to photograph and investigate solar eclipses in Brazil, Chain, Iran, the Sudan and the US. He was a Ph.D. supervisor to John P. Hagen and was director while

Vera Rubin Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studyi ...

studied there.

Later life

The directors of Georgetown closed the observatory in 1972, and he returned to Manila to continue work in solar spectroscopy. It was there that he died and was buried.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heyden, Francis J. 1907 births 1991 deaths Georgetown University faculty Catholic clergy scientists 20th-century American Jesuits Jesuit scientists Woodstock College alumni Harvard University alumni