An Attractive Little House

Abstract

When I first came to Ann Arbor as a new graduate student in the fall of 1959, Edith was already on the staff. She was engaged in her fundamental work on the abundances of elements in the sun together with Goldberg and Aller. In another time, she would have been a junior faculty member, but in that era women were generally not offered such positions. The wide respect that she received in the broader astronomical community was nonetheless clear to the students, as many world renowned astronomers came to the campus specifically to visit and confer with Edith. On these occasions, she often hosted wonderful parties at her attractive little house. In the easy atmosphere, we had a chance to meet and talk with many of the astronomical “greats”. An amusing sidelight is that we noticed the invitations were sometimes staggered in arrival time. At first we thought this was because of the large group in such a small house, but later we discovered she wanted to ensure that everyone had a chance to enjoy some of the delicious food she had prepared, so those people who tended to stand by the hors d’oeuvre table and eat everything in sight were invited slightly later.