Background
Olivier, Charles Pollard was born on April 10, 1884 in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Son of George Wythe and Katherine Roy (Pollard) Olivier.
Olivier, Charles Pollard was born on April 10, 1884 in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Son of George Wythe and Katherine Roy (Pollard) Olivier.
Bachelor of Arts, Univercity Virginia, 1905, Master of Arts, 1908, Doctor of Philosophy, 1911. Graduate study University of California, 1909-1910.
In 1901 he became an assistant at the nearby Leander McCormick Observatory, and in 1905 he was Vanderbilt fellow at the observatory. In 1911 Olivier founded the American Meteor Society to perform visual observations of random meteors as well as meteor showers. lieutenant was created as an offshoot from the American Astronomical Society.
Along with the British astronomer William F. Denning, Olivier pioneered the scientific visual study of meteors.
From 1912 until 1914 he was professor of astronomy at the Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. He also served as a summer volunteer at the Yerkes Observatory.
He returned to the University of Virginia in 1914 as an assistant professor, and was hired onto the McCormick Observatory staff to work on parallax measurements. In 1918 he left to serve in the world war.
Following the war he became director of the Flower Observatory at the University of Pennsylvania in 1928, resigning his position as a professor at Virginia.
By 1945 he was Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania department of astronomy. During the 1940s he encouraged the university to sell off the land to pay for a new observatory. This was finally completed in 1956 and was named the Flower and Cook Observatory.
Served with United States Army, 1918-1919. Member American Astronomical Society, International Astronomical Union (chairman meteor commission 1924-1934), American Philosophical Society, Societe Astronomique de France, Meteoritical Society (past
Married Mary Frances Pender, October 18, 1919 (deceased. Married second, Ninuzza Seymour, October 23, 1936. Children: Alice Dorsey (Mistress Agricultural Engineer Hayes) Elise Pender (Mistress East.O. Ferris).