Truman Henry Safford (6 January 1836 &ndash; 13 June 1901) was an American calculating prodigy. In later life he was an observatory director.<!---->

Legacy

The Safford Fund for Williams College student researchers was created by his descendants to honor him. A portrait of him as a child prodigy hangs in the Hopkins Observatory's Mehlin Museum of Astronomy, adjacent to the Milham Planetarium. His natural calculating abilities seemed to wane with age.

References

Further reading

  • The Remarkable 'Lightning Calculator,' Truman Henry Safford, Harvard Magazine, vol. 85 (1982), pp.&nbsp;54–56. Co-author: K.R. Lewis.
  • Describes his agitation at calculating
  • Hopkins Observatory
  • "Obituary: Truman Henry Safford," The Observatory, vol. 24 (1901), pp.&nbsp;307–309, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1901Obs....24..307
  • "The Celebration of the Semi-Centennial of the Chicago Astronomical Society and the Dedication of a Tablet to the Memory of Truman Henry Safford," Popular Astronomy, vol. 21 (1913), pp.&nbsp;473–479, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1913PA.....21..473F&link_type=ARTICLE&db_key=AST&high=4e8047f40e10119
  • "Truman Henry Safford", Science, Volume 14, Issue 340 (1901), pp.&nbsp;22–24, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1901Sci....14...22J&link_type=EJOURNAL&db_key=GEN&high=4e8047f40e10119