Born West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA, 20 August 1915
Died Boulder, Colorado, USA, 12 March 1990
During his career, Roberts established the first coronagraph in the western hemisphere at Climax, Colorado, founded and directed the High Altitude Observatory, the Department of Astrogeophysics at the University of Colorado, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Program on Food, Climate, and the World’s Future of the Aspen Institute.
Roberts received a B.A. degree from Amherst College in 1938 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1943. In 1940 he married Janet Smock, who was to be his wife for 50 years. Immediately following their marriage, they moved to Climax, where he completed his thesis for a Harvard Ph.D., which involved establishing the world’s third coronagraph (following those at Pic du Midi, France, and Arosa, Switzerland) and observations of the solar corona. The Roberts family lived at Climax, for 7 years, and there were born three of their four children:...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Selected References
Bogdan, Thomas J. 2002. Donald Menzel and the Beginnings of the High Altitude Observatory. Journal for the History of Astronomy, xxxiii, 157–192.
Firor, John, Walter Orr Roberts (August 20, 1915- March 12, 1990) Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 135, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 624–628.
Roberts, Walter Orr, Interview with Dr. Walter Roberts by David DeVorkin, July 26, 1983. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/28418_1.html
Seiler, Michael P. 2005. Solar Research in the Third Reich, in Wittmann, A.D., Wolfschmidt, G., Duerbeck, H.W., eds., Development of Solar Research, p. 199–228, H.Deutsch, Frankfurt, 2005.
Seiler, Michael P. 2007. Kommandosache Sonnengott. Geschichte der Sonnenforschung im Dritten Reich und unter alliierter Besatzung. H.Deutsch, Frankfurt 2007.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Malville, J.M. (2014). Roberts, Walter Orr. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9392
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9392
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9916-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9917-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics