Former head of astronomy department dies at 102
July 30, 2003
Theodor Jacobsen, head of the astronomy department from 1928 to 1971, died in his Seattle home July 17. He was 102 years old.
Jacobsen, the first member of his department at the UW -- a department that now includes more than 20 faculty -- was the only astronomy professor at the University until the last few years of his career. He retired to emeritus status in 1971, but remained active in astronomy. He published a book four years ago that explained ancient astronomical discoveries by men such as Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler in modern mathematical terms.
Seven-year-old Jacobsen found his life's work while living in Denmark, when his parents gave him a crude two-inch lens telescope with a paper tube.
He received his undergraduate degree in astronomy from Stanford and was the only astronomy major in his class.
The cause of death was not reported.
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