Background
Parkhurst, John Adelbert was born on September 24, 1861 in Dixon, Illinois, United States. Son of Sanford Britton and Clarissa (Hubbard) Parkhurst.
Parkhurst, John Adelbert was born on September 24, 1861 in Dixon, Illinois, United States. Son of Sanford Britton and Clarissa (Hubbard) Parkhurst.
Bachelor of Arts, Wheaton (Illinois) College, 1897. Bachelor of Science, Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana, 1886, South.M. Entertainment, 1897.
In 1886. Foreign the following two years he taught mathematics at the same school. He returned to Marengo, Illinois where he kept a small, private observatory that he used primarily for variable star observation. The Yerkes Observatory was built nearby in 1897, and in 1898 he joined the staff as a volunteer research assistant.
By 1900 he was appointed as an assistant.
He remained on the staff for 25 years, later becoming an associate professor at the University of Chicago, specializing in practical astronomy. His most important work was in the specialty of photometry.
He also participated in three eclipse expeditions, but only enjoyed clear seeing conditions on the last (1925). During his career he published about 100 papers on astronomy, both before and during his time at Yerkes.
In 1905 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
On February 27, 1925, he suffered a cerebral hemorrage and died a few day later at his home in Williams Bay. The crater Parkhurst on the Moon is named after him.
Married Anna Greenleaf, November 21, 1888.