Roy Kenneth Marshall

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Name: Roy Kenneth Marshall

Birthdate:21 Aug 1907

Birthplace:Madison County, Illinois

 

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the American astronomer Roy Kenneth Marshall.


He spent some time as astronomer with the Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia before becoming the first Director of Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 

(pictured here shortly after construction) which first opened its doors to the public on 10 May 1949. 

As well as contributing to the classic book on sky lore and constellations Star Maps for Beginners (pictured) by Israel Monroe Levitt (1942)

he was also one of the principal authors (the other being Leland Stanford Copeland) of a series of articles entitled ‘Astronomical Anecdotes’ published in Sky and Telescope (the feature in the June 1946 issue is seen here) from late-1941 until the end of 1946. Roy Kenneth Marshall was also a pioneering TV science broadcaster, hosting the weekly 15 minute National Broadcasting Company (NBC) television science programme ‘The Nature of Things’ which first screened on 5 Feb 1948 and ran until 1954.

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