American astronomer, one of the major figures in 20th century science. Working with the 100-inch Hooker telescope at California’s Mount Wilson observatory, he made a series of discoveries that revolutionized humanity’s vision of the cosmos. He was the first astronomer who provided reliable evidence that the universe is homogenous, the same in all directions as far as the telescope can see.
Raised in Missouri, Hubble was in his lifetime a star athlete; Rhodes Scholar; Military officer; and astronomer.
The third of eight kids, he was the son of a lawyer who worked in the insurance field. He grew up loving nature, earth and sky, and avidly pursued sports. During his recovery from appendicitis at 14, he began reading astronomy. Handsome and patrician, he reached a height of 6′ 2″ and maintained an average weight through his lifetime.
After attending the University of Chicago on a scholarship, Hubble won the coveted, prestigious Rhodes scholarship and left on 9/07/1910 for an 11-day voyage to England. At Oxford for three years, he became a confirmed Anglophile, adopting a British accent, tweeds and plus-fours, which he wore for the rest of his life. He opted for law over science but never did pass the bar. When his dad died on 1/19/1913 after a long illness, Hubble came home to help the family and took a job teaching Spanish, physics and math at high school level. He read astronomy from a continued interest and took classes in 1914-16.
During WW I, Hubble served in the military, entering the army on 5/15/1917 and shipping out to England on 7/09/1918. He saw combat in France and was discharged a Major on 8/20/1919 in San Francisco. Hubble went to work at Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory where his began in earnest his exploration of the universe.
In 1920 he met Grace Burke, a married woman. After she was widowed in 1921, they discretely began a relationship the following year and were married on 2/26/1924.
During the ’20s and ’30s, as the stature of the Hubbles increased, they became part of Hollywood society and one of the noted guests at the San Simeon castle of William Randolph Hurst. A character in his tweed jackets, knickers and English briar pipes, he and his witty wife mingled with the Huxleys, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin and Helen Hayes. His friend Albert Einstein called Hubble’s work “beautiful,” and modified his equations on relativity to account for the discovery that the cosmos is expanding.
Lifetime Anglephiles, Edwin and Grace Hubble spent their summers in England where Edwin lectured and fished the trout streams. His contributions to science were inestimable, the man who was called by some, “the smartest man in the world.”
He died of a heart attack on September 28, 1953 in San Marino, CA. He was 63.
Link to Wikipedia biography