Mary Lea Heger
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Mary Lea Shane (1897-1983) Born: Mary Lea Heger on July 13, 1897 in Wilmington, Delaware. Married C. Donald Shane in 1920 and was a mother of two.
Accredited with founding the Lick Observatory Archives located in the Dean E. McHenry Library. In 1982, Her monument at Lick was renamed the Mary Lea Shane Archives of Lick Observatory.[1]
During childhood, Mary Lea Heger's family moved west to Belvedere on the San Francisco Bay where she spent her youth.[1]
Heger received her bachelor's degree in 1919 from the University of California, Berkeley, becoming a graduate student in astronomy.[1] After marrying C. Donald Shane in 1920 she completed her PhD in 1924, writing a thesis under the supervision of W.W. Campbell at Lick Observatory that was one of the first papers to recognize the sharp, stationary Na I absorption lines in the spectra of distant binaries as interstellar in origin.[1]
Deciding to focus on raising her two small children, Heger gave up the notion of a professional career.[1] At the end of World War II when her husband became director of Lick Observatory, Heger became a well known scientific hostess and was remembered for her generous hospitality.[1]
Mary Lea Shane died on her birthday of a heart attack at her home in Scotts Valley, California in 1983.[1] She was eighty six years old.