Hogg, Frank Scott

Professor of astronomy at the University of Toronto, Director of Dunlap Observatory.

Born in Preston Ontario and a graduate of the University of Toronto in 1926, Frank Scott Hogg was the first to be awarded a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard College. It was during his graduate studies that he met Helen Sawyer whom he married in 1930. After travelling to Europe and the Western United States on a Parker Travelling Fellowship visiting observatories, Dr. Hogg was offered a position at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria B.C., then under the direction of J.S. Plaskett. He and his wife Helen both undertook research at the D.O.A. until 1934 when they moved to the newly opened David Dunlap Observatory, where Frank Hogg became a lecturer.

Through the years, he rose through the ranks to become a professor of astronomy and finally head of the department and Director of the David Dunlap Observatory in 1946. His main interest lay in the radial velocity program of which he spent much of the time observing, measuring and computing data. During the war, he taught Air Navigation and is credited for inventing a two-star sextant intended to simplify navigation. Under his direction the D.D.O. undertook and completed many observing programs and a Ph.D. program was initiated. Unfortunately, Dr. Hogg did not live to see the first Ph.D. student graduate. He died of a heart ailment on New Years Day 1951, at the age of forty-six.