My Grandmother Helped Build Telescopes, a Woman Ahead of Her Time

Warren O. Tribune Chronicle, May 3, 1951

I've often remarked on how my grandmother was one of the most influential people in my life. I owe her a debt gratitude for the encouragement she gave me and the example she set as an inquisitive, lifelong learner. 

Last night I found a manila envelope in my garage with a newspaper story from 1951 featuring my grandmother polishing a mirror for a Newtonian telescope that she and the telescope society she belonged to were building. The title of the article is Astronomer Here Counts Herself Among Few Women To Make Telescope Mirror. 

The journalist did not receive a byline, leaving the spotlight squarely on my grandmother, Elizabeth Sandy. What's immediately striking is that in those days they evidently did not identify women by their names but rather in association with the husband. Here are the first paragraphs:

A lot of women make cookies, some make jam, and a few make quilts, but the number of women who have made mirrors for telescopes is very, very few.

My grandmother Elizabeth Sandy

One of the very few to ever make such a mirror is Mrs. Grant F. Sandy, 1426 Sunset NE, one of approximately 30 members of the Mahoning Valley Astronomical Society.

Mrs. Sandy intends to use the mirror in a Newtonian reflecting telescope, the mounting of which she and her husband plan to construct in the near future. The mirror is the first one ever made by Mrs. Sandy altho she has had an interest in astronomy ever since she was a high school student in Cairo, W. Va near Parkersburg.

"I’ve been fascinated by astronomy and history ever since I was a teenager," she said. "And the fact that I was also interested in mathematics helped considerably to foster my interest in astronomy."

“Starting astronomy is like reading the history of the universe," she added. “Once you become interested you can’t quit your search for the truth about the marvels discovered by the telescope. We learn about our own earth by our observations of the other planets and universes.

"Mirror making for telescopes is a fascinating hobby which takes dogged persistence and hard work. But the end product, the telescope, makes it all very much worthwhile when it takes a deep into the most romantic branch of modern science, astronomy and astrophysics."

In the rest of the article the author shares a little about the Sandy family history, when they moved to Warren, how their children's interest in astronomy was fostered and where they went to college. Also mentioned is a planned trip out West which will include visits to the Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles and possibly the Mount Palomar Observatory near San Diego, which is home to the largest telescope in the world.

* * * 

"Against the Wind" -- Elizabeth Sandy

One of the reasons I chose Ohio University was that it was only an hour away from Parkersburg, where my grandparents returned to after Grandpa retired. One of the rooms in her house had bookshelves from floor to ceiling on all four walls. Grandma did the architectural design for the house which instead of wainscoting in the living room she had bookshelves on the lower portion of each wall. 

She was a lifelong journal-keeper and greatly enjoyed reading and writing poetry, influenced directly by her great uncle John S. Hall, the blind poet of Ritchie County. She also did a little painting and was supportive of my own creative pursuits.

Much more could be said, but maybe that will have to wait for another time. Here's a poem she wrote after a stroke in the early sixties. During a surgery she had an out of body experience in which she watched the doctors and nurses fighting to keep her alive. This experience led to our later discussions regarding the relationship of the soul, mind and body, and the nature of life.

Aftermath Of A Stroke

by Elizabeth Sandy

Here I lie, tight packed as in my Mother's womb

I laid with restlessness a full lifetime ago.

But still entirely I, altho I have no room

To move about and at my will to come and go.

But now -- I wander, freely in my mind

The long road thru the crowding mists of time,

And pause in my journeying now and then

To live the happy times again

Made bright indeed by sunset's glow!

* * * 

Related Link: A Dedication