Background
Charles Lane Poor was born on January 18, 1866, in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Edward Eri and Mary Wellington (Lane) Poor.
Charles Lane Poor (January 18, 1866 – September 27, 1951) was an American astronomy professor, noted for his opposition to Einstein's theory of relativity.
City College of New York, New York City, New York, United States
Poor obtained his undergraduate and part of his graduate education at the City College of New York, receiving a Bachelor of Science in 1886 and Master of Science in 1890.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Poor completed his education at the Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1892.
Royal Astronomical Society, Piccadilly, London, England, United Kingdom
Charles Poor was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
https://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Non-technical-Explanation-Gravitational-Astronomical-ebook/dp/B00NDI11TU/?tag=2022091-20
1922
Charles Lane Poor was born on January 18, 1866, in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Edward Eri and Mary Wellington (Lane) Poor.
Lane obtained his undergraduate and part of his graduate education at the City College of New York, receiving a Bachelor of Science in 1886 and Master of Science in 1890. He completed his education at the Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1892.
At Johns Hopkins he studied under Simon Newcomb, who was then chairman of the departments of astronomy and mathematics. Newcomb’s direction led Poor to general studies of comets and to a dissertation on the difficult problem of the orbit and motion of Comet 1889V.
Poor published many papers and books vehemently criticizing Einstein and his work. The quality of his work on comets won Poor a post on the faculty of Johns Hopkins in 1892. He eventually became head of the department of astronomy and held the position until 1899, when he resigned to take over his father's cotton factoring business in South Carolina.
In 1903 Poor returned to science as a professor of astronomy at Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his life, becoming professor emeritus in 1944.
Poor was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. From 1901 to 1906 he was an editor of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Many of his personal interests were related to his professional work in astronomy and celestial mechanics.
Quotations:
"I know nothing whatever about the cause of gravitation nor, so far as I am aware, does anybody else."
"I have read various articles on the fourth dimension, the relativity theory of Einstein, and other psychological speculation on the constitution of the universe; and after reading them I feel as Senator Brandegee felt after a celebrated dinner in Washington. “I feel,” he said, “as if I had been wandering with Alice in Wonderland and had tea with the Mad Hatter."
"The supposed astronomical proofs of the theory [of relativity], as cited and claimed by Einstein, do not exist. He is a confusionist. The Einstein theory is a fallacy. The theory that ether does not exist, and that gravity is not a force but a property of space can only be described as a crazy vagary, a disgrace to our age."
Charles Poor was an associate fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow in the New York Academy of Sciences, a member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in Leipzig, and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in London. He was also a member of the New York Yacht Club.
Poor was highly involved in the yachting sport and was secretary of the Manhasset Country Club. In the summer of 1912, for instance, ten yacht clubs, some as far away as Chicago and Maine, competed in what the New-York Tribune described as a "series of three races for the Manhasset Bay challenge cup." A special committee was formed with a representative of each club and Charles Lane Poor was chosen from the American Yacht Club.
Poor also wrote books on yachting and navigation and also invented numerous navigational instruments.
Quotes from others about the person
Poor's outspoken opinions became more notable--bordering on notorious--when he vocally attacked Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity as well as the theories of other well-established experts. On November 28, 1922, for instance, the New-York Tribune reported "Charles Lane Poor, professor celestial mechanics at Columbia University, who has just completed a book in which he seeks to disprove the Einstein theory of relativity, interrupted his labors long enough yesterday to do the same thing with the conclusions of Professor Thomas Jefferson Jackson See, government astronomer at Mare Island, Calif., that he had discovered the secret of gravitation."
Charles Lane Poor had married Anna Louise Easton on April 19, 1892, and the couple had three children, 14-year old Charles, Jr.; Alfred Easton, who was 12; and 7-year old Edmund Ward. By the time the family moved into the East 69th Street house, Lane was internationally known in the scientific community.