On This Day in Pittsburgh History: April 28, 1920

Dr. John Brashear, noted astronomer and maker of astronomical lenses and other scientific instruments, died at 80 at his South Side home. [Historic Pittsburgh; Wikipedia] 

When he was nine, his grandfather took him to view through the telescope of ‘Squire’ Joseph P. Wampler, who set up his traveling telescope in Brownsville. That influential view of the moon and the planet Saturn stayed with Brashear for the rest of his life. After receiving a common school education until age 15, he became an apprentice to a machinist and had mastered his trade at age 20. (…)

In 1898 he became director of the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, continuing in this post until 1900.

From 1901 to 1904, he was acting chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, after serving as a member of the board of trustees since 1896. Brashear also was a trustee of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and served as President of the Academy of Science and Art.