Dr. Harlow Shapley (1885-1972) and Martha Betz Shapley (1890-1981)
Dr. Harlow Shapley was Director of the Harvard College Observatory for 32 years. During that time (1921-1952), the Observatory became a major research center. Shapley led Harvard to develop as of one of the major astronomy graduate schools in the United States.
His research placed our sun and earth on the outskirts of the Milky Way and proved conclusively that Earth is not located close to the center of our galaxy.
Dr. Shapley was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1924 and served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Sigma Xi. He held prestigious board positions at organizations including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and M.I.T. Dr. Shapley had a key role in the formation of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
His wife, Martha Betz Shapley, was known as First Lady of the Harvard College Observatory for more than thirty years her husband was its Director. She authored and co-authored fourteen papers on astronomy from 1915 through 1922. They had met in a math class at the University of Missouri where they both graduated.