CSO History

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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T
he inspiration and support for this report came from the CSO Technical Manager,  Dr. Richard Chamberlin, but it could not have been accomplished without the  support and invaluable input and reminiscences from the CSO Director Dr. Thomas Phillips. We also received valuable input and assistance in gathering materials from the following:
Ralph Leighton, son of Dr. Robert Leighton;
Susan McCurdy, Administrative Assistant, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, CIT;
Dr. Shelley Irwin, Associate Archivist, CIT;
Heidi Aspaturian, Public Relations, CIT;
Deborah Williams-Hedges, Caltech Media Relations.
And finally, thanks to Diana Bisel, CSO Administrative Aide for her assistance, and to Allen Guyer, CSO Electro-Mechanical Specialist, who is the only current CSO staff member who has been here since the construction days, for reading the manuscript and valuable input.

Other early staff members include Richard "Rick" J. Howard who came to CSO on loan from JPL to serve as the first Site Manager and very ably became the liason between CSO and the Hilo community and established many useful contacts, and as well guided the ongoing construction. Rick served from February 1986 until 1987. In September 1987, Rick was replaced by Walter Steiger who had previously retired from the University of Hawaii and was anxious to get some hands-on experience on Mauna Kea. In 1993, Walter retired again and was replaced by Antony Schinkel with the designation now of Technical Manager. One of the last things that Walter accomplished during his teure was to oversee the development and construction of the new base facility for CSO in the University of Hawaii at Hilo Research Park, now known as the Georgina and William Gimbel Building.

There are many individuals who have been involved with the development of this observatory and I offer my apologies for omitting mention of all of them in this brief review. One in particular who should be mentioned is David Woody who, along with David Vail and Walter Schaal, published a paper on the Design, Construction, and Performance of the Leighton 10.4 -m-Diameter Radio Telescopes (see Reference No. 5) Comments and additional information from readers of this article will be very welcome!

WS January 2007
steiger@hawaii.edu

 

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