Yeagley, Henry L. (Henry Lincoln), 1899-1996

Henry Lincoln Yeagley was born in York, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1899. He completed his degree in electrochemical engineering at Penn State in 1925, and then went on to finish his master's and doctoral degrees in physics in 1927 and 1934, respectively. He was a faculty member in the Penn State Physics Department from 1925 to 1958, and also established the Astronomy Department; he also founded the Penn State Astronomical Society and the Penn State Riding Club. In 1932 he introduced the concepts of automobile seat belts and crumple zones in an article in the Penn State Engineer magazine. He gained international prominence for developing the first coherent theory of bird navigation in 1942, which explained why birds could fly great distances and then return to the precise spot from which they had departed. Although his experiments were dismissed as far-fetched at the time, his work was later recognized and accorded greater scientific respectability. In June of 1958 he left Penn State as professor emeritus of physics, and was appointed the Joseph Priestley professor of natural philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle. At Dickinson he chaired the Departments of Physics and Astronomy, installed a planetarium, and in 1963 designed a seven-telescope observatory. He retired in 1969 as a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy. He died on December 26, 1996 in State College at the age of 97.