On September 19, Aquinas College and The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) invite the public to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aquinas College’s Ralph B. Baldwin Observatory. This free event will include a celebration of Dr. Ralph B. Baldwin and his significant contributions to the scientific, business and philanthropic world, followed by a keynote presentation by notable planetary and lunar specialist Dr. Nicolle Zellner.
Dr. Zellner has been on the faculty of Albion College since 2005 and a full professor specializing in planetary astronomy since 2017. She is among today’s leading specialists in studying the moon and its possible origin. Dr. Zellner has been applauded for her emphasis on science outreach and is the recipient of the prestigious Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication from the American Astronomical Society.
Her presentation, To the Moon – What We Know and Why Go Back, will explore how Baldwin’s groundbreaking theories contributed to planning for the Apollo missions and provided the foundation for current theories. She will also explain how more knowledge of our nearest neighbor in space is expected from the Artemis missions now in the final stages of development.
The presentation begins promptly at 7:00 p.m. and is free to attend and open to the public.
Venue Information
The presentation will be held in the Wege Center at Aquinas College, located at 1700 Fulton St. E, due north of the Albertus Magnus Hall of Science, which is at 1661 Robinson Road, S.E. Recommended parking is just east of Albertus Magnus in the parking lot for the Performing Arts Center.
Following the presentation, a reception will be held in the atrium of Albertus Magnus Hall, with tours of Baldwin Observatory and telescopic observing, sky conditions permitting.
About Ralph B. Baldwin
Baldwin (1912 – 2010) had a long and eventful life as a professional astronomer, Grand Rapids businessman and community leader. While on the staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in the 1940s, he participated in the development of the radio proximity fuse, a tool vital to the Allied effort in World War II. He had a passionate interest in the study of the moon, leading to the publishing of two acclaimed books advocating that lunar craters are a result of meteoric impact and not volcanic activity. While at Northwestern University, he was also a lecturer at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium.
Baldwin eventually returned to his native Grand Rapids to assume the presidency of the family business, Oliver Machinery, where he went on to further distinction in the woodworking industry and as a community leader. This included being a member of the board of directors of the Grand Rapids Public Museum in the 1960s. As an astronomer and former planetarium lecturer, he played a key role in advocating for and financially supporting the establishment of a planetarium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 1961. In 1967, the planetarium at the Jefferson Avenue location was named in honor of fallen astronaut and Grand Rapids Native Roger B. Chaffee.
Baldwin later contributed to the fundraising effort that resulted in the establishment of an observatory atop an addition to the Albertus Hall of Science at Aquinas College. The facility was named the Ralph B. Baldwin Observatory in his honor at the time of its opening in the autumn, of 1994.
