Donald Howard Menzel

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Donald Howard Menzel (April 11, 1901 – December 14, 1976) was one of the first leading American theoretical astronomers and astrophysicists. He helped explain the Sun’s atmosphere, the chemistry of stars, the atmosphere of Mars, and the nature of glowing gas clouds in space.

Early life and education
Menzel was born in Florence, Colorado, and grew up in Leadville. He showed a love of science from a young age, learned Morse code, built a chemistry lab in his basement, and even became a radio amateur. He married Florence Elizabeth Kreager in 1926, and they had two daughters, Suzanne and Elizabeth.

He began college at the University of Denver, earning a chemistry bachelor’s degree in 1920 and a chemistry-mathematics master’s degree in 1921. He spent summers working with astronomer Harlow Shapley at the Harvard College Observatory. He then earned a second master’s degree in astronomy at Princeton in 1923 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1924 under Henry Norris Russell, who inspired his interest in theory.

Career
After teaching at the University of Iowa and Ohio State University, Menzel joined the Lick Observatory (University of California) in 1926 as an assistant professor. He moved to Harvard in 1932 and built a reputation as a skilled theoretical astronomer.

World War II saw him serve as a Navy lieutenant commander, directing intelligence work and later helping with radio-wave propagation for the Department of Defense by studying the Sun’s activity. After the war, he returned to Harvard and eventually became acting director in 1952 and full director from 1954 to 1966. One famous (and controversial) move during his tenure was discarding a large number of photographic plates, an action nicknamed the “Menzel Gap” because it left a hole in the records from 1953 to 1968.

Menzel also worked as a U.S. State Department consultant on Latin American affairs from 1964 until his death.

Honors and activities
He was elected to several prestigious bodies: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1934), the American Philosophical Society (1943), and the National Academy of Sciences (1948). Harvard awarded him honorary degrees in 1942, and the University of Denver did so in 1954. He served as vice president of the American Astronomical Society (1946–1948) and then as president (1954–1956). He received the John Evans Award from the University of Denver in 1965.

Eclipses, nebulae, and field guides
Menzel led many solar eclipse expeditions around the world to study the Sun’s corona and prominences. He built a solar observatory at Climax, Colorado, to study eclipses. He helped advance the study of planetary nebulae with colleagues Lawrence Aller and James Gilbert Baker.

He wrote the Field Guide to the Stars and Planets (first edition, 1964), which popularized astronomy for a broad audience. The guide became a best-seller, and later editions were prepared after his death.

Views on space and UFOs
In his later years, Menzel argued that black holes were not real, a view that stirred debate. He also promoted the exploded planet hypothesis, the idea that many small planets might be fragments of a larger one. He was a skeptic of UFOs and wrote several popular books debunking them: Flying Saucers – Myth – Truth – History (1953), The World of Flying Saucers (1963, with Lyle G. Boyd), and The UFO Enigma (1977, with Ernest H. Taves). He appeared on radio with Edward R. Murrow about UFOs and even described a personal UFO sighting, which he attributed to a mirage or atmospheric effects.

Other contributions
Menzel observed many total solar eclipses and held the informal record for the most observed eclipses, a record later surpassed by his student Jay Pasachoff. He discovered the Ant Nebula (Menzel 3) in 1922. The minor planet 1967 Menzel and a lunar crater are named in his honor. He published more than 270 scientific and popular papers, and several revised editions of his Field Guide to the Stars and Planets.

Legacy
Menzel’s work helped shape modern observational and theoretical astronomy in the United States. His Field Guide and his eclipse expeditions inspired many to look up at the night sky and ask questions about how the universe works.