6551 P-L. Discovered 1960 Sept. 24 by C. J. van Houten and I. van Houten-Groeneveld at Palomar.

Named in honor of Bernard M. Oliver {1916–1995}, retired Vice President for Research and Development of the Hewlett-Packard Company, where he was an innovator in the field of electronic instrumentation. He has made major contributions toward the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, and sky surveying with charge-coupled devices. (M 8541)

Obituary published in Bull. Am. Astron. Soc., Vol. 28, No. 4, p. 1459–1461 (1996).