ASTRONOMER
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In
addition to his interest in anthropology, Marvin Vann has devoted much of
his life to making telescopes and related equipment accessible to people
all over the world, donating not only to Albion College, but to
educational institutions in Central America as well.
While an undergraduate at Albion College, Vann restored the historic Alvan Clark refractor telescope in the Observatory, which had not been in used for over twenty years. During the early years of space exploration, Vann worked for Lockheed Missile and Space Co. In 1962, he became a liaison engineer for the Barnes Engineering Co.; and from 1969 to 1980, he was the director of the Foothill College Observatory and Planetarium in Los Altos, CA.
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The green portion of this telescope is the Clark refractor. The blue portion is the solar prominence telescope prototype, invented and donated by Marvin Vann, '40. |
In 1971, Vann donated to Albion College a prototype of his own invention, the solar prominence telescope. He donated the prototype in memory of Dr. Clement Rood, Class of 1894, professor of astronomy and physics at Albion from 1920 to 1939. The telescope was mounted piggyback on the Clark refractor. The solar telescope allowed the prominences of the sun to be studied without eye injury. The solar prominence telescope was used by the College for almost 20 years before the filter in the telescope became ineffective due to its age; it was removed when the Clark was renovated in the early 1990s. In 1998, Vann made another gift, this time for the dedication of the Stellman rooftop observatory, a hydrogen alpha solar filter to be used with a 14-inch Celestron telescope. The filter can make detailed observations of the sun's surface, sunspots, flares and prominences, which can then be displayed in real time on a television monitor.
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A recipient of Albion's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996, Vann lives in Green Valley, AZ with his wife, Veronica Ransom Vann '41. Among Vann's other honors is a Governor's Award Nomination in 1968 for "Creative Citizenship" from then-Governor Ronald Reagan for his contributions to the National Observatory in Baja, CA. He has been twice honored in Mexico for consulting on and providing equipment for planetarium installations there. Currently, Dr. James Cook, Professor Emeritus in English at Albion College, is writing a book on Vann's life that he hopes to have completed in March of 2002. |
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Special
Collections Stockwell-Mudd Libraries Albion College 611 E. Porter Street Albion, MI 49224 |
Updated February 27, 2003 JAT
