Roach, Franklin Evans, 1900-

Franklin E. Roach (1905-1993) began his career as an astronomer working for the Yerkes Observatory while he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. He was the first astronomer to be stationed at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory. Roach worked there using a small camera to observe photographic photometry and polarimetry of reflection nebulae. This innovative program was Roach's start in quantitative photometric measurements of large, low surface-brightness areas, which he was to perfect in his later research on the night-sky light.

After two years at the McDonald Observatory, Roach left in 1936 to become an associate professor at the University of Arizona teaching astronomy and physics. In the course of his career, Roach produced over 100 publications. Such works included articles published in the Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards , the Journal of Geophysical Research, The Astrophysical Journal, and the Light of the Night Sky .

From the guide to the Franklin E. Roach Papers 2002-142., 1955-1972, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)

Franklin Evans Roach contributed greatly to the field of upper-atmosphere physics, conducting and publishing many photometric studies of airglow, zodiacal light, and diffuse galactic light. In 1929, he began his early training in astronomy at Yerkes Observatory under Otto Struve. After obtaining his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 1934, he began work as the first resident astronomer at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. In 1936, he accepted a position as associate professor at the University of Arizona where he taught astronomy and physics for six years. During World War II, Roach initially worked designing military rockets at Cal Tech and then was reassigned to work on the Manhattan Project. He resumed his civilian research after the war, first, working for the Naval Ordnance Test Station in Pasadena and studying airglow at the Cactus Peak observatory and then at the Fritz Peak observatory at the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado. He also helped establish an observatory at Mt. Haleakala on the island of Maui in Hawaii. He retired from civil service in 1966.

Interspersed throughout his career were smaller interesting assignments including studying as a Fulbright scholar in Paris in 1951-52; traveling around the world as an airglow observer for the International Geophysical Year in 1957-9; working as a consultant for NASA in briefing and debriefing astronauts in the 1960s; and working on the Condon Report from 1966-1968, a study sponsored by the Air Force to investigate unidentified flying objects.

Roach published more than two hundred papers and was awarded a Gold Medal for Exceptional Service by the US Department of Commerce. He died in Tucson, Arizona on September 21, 1993.

From the guide to the Roach, Franklin E. Papers, 1931-1994, (University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Polar Regions Collections & Archives)