Observator and Professor

Abstract

Both Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn in her biography [1] of her father Jacobus Kapteyn as well as various writers of obituaries or other articles about Kapteyn suggested that he had become an astronomer accidentally.

I was born on January 8, 1942, exactly three hundred years

after the death of Galileo. I estimate, however,

that about two hundred thousand other babies were also born that day.

I don’t know whether any of them was later interested in astronomy.

Stephen William Hawking (1942–2018)

It is no prudence, but a waste of the Kingdom’s money

to appoint a professor without supplying him

with the indispensables for his teaching.

Jonkheer Bernard Hendrik Cornelis Karel van der Wijck (1836–1925)

Hawking died on March 14, 2018, which was Albert Einstein’s birthday, who was born on that date in 1879.

Bernhard Jonkheer (Squire) Hendrik van der Wijck was professor of philosophy and literature at the University of Groningen. This quote is from his lecture on the occasion of the end of his term as Rector Magnificus in 1879 [1].