Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Life
& Death:
George
M. Searle
-
- "The reality of the existence of spirits ... is no
longer an open question, even among scientific men who have examined the subject. Anyone
who considers the manifestation of them as mere humbug, trickery or delusion is simply not
up to date."
George
Mary Searle (1839-1918)
An orphan raised by relatives in Brookline, Massachusetts, George Searle
received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Harvard University. He first calculated charts for
the United States Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, then worked with the astronomer Benjamin
A. Gould at Dudley Observatory, Albany, New York and at the U.S. Coast Survey, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He discovered the asteroid Pandora in 1858. Between 1862 and 1864 he
taught mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy in Newport, Rhode Island. Following this, as
an assistant at the Harvard University Observatory, he began what would become a long
professional association with Samuel P. Langley.
In 1868 he entered the Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle and
remained at the order’s headquarters in New York until 1889 when he went to the
newly-established Paulist house at the Catholic University of America.
At Catholic University he lectured in mathematics and astronomy, directed
the observatory, and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1896. His experiments on the resistance and
trajectories of projectiles led to the invention of a rangefinder for the U.S. Navy.
Between 1904 and 1909 he was fourth superior general of his congregation
and then served as Newman club chaplain at the University of California, Berkeley. Between
1900 and 1911, Searle was associated with the Smithsonian Institution and participated in
several scientific expeditions including the May 1900 expedition to Wadesboro, North
Carolina to observe the total eclipse for which he operated the field cameras.
His computation of the orbit and reappearance of Halley’s comet in
1910 was considered definitive by American astronomers. He designed the ceiling of the
Paulist mother church with its depiction of the stars and planets as they were positioned
on January 25, 1885, the night of the church’s dedication.
- "It is entirely possible that behind the perception of
our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware."
Albert Einstein
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