Mary Lea Heger
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Mary Lea Heger (1897-1983) is 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] Born Mary Lea Heger on July 13, 1897 in Wilmington, Delaware she married C. Donald Shane in 1920 and became a mother of two.
Education and career
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]
Retirement
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]
Death
Mary Lea Shane died on her birthday of a heart attack at her home in Scotts Valley, California on July 13, 1983.[1] She was eighty-six years old.