Johns Hopkins University Observatory
Centurion, 1893–1942
Born 12 May 1866 in New York (Brooklyn), New York
Died 23 February 1942 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum
, Manhattan, New York
Proposed by Eugene A. Hoffman and William Bispham
Elected 4 November 1893 at age twenty-seven
Proposer of:
Century Memorial
The liveliest interests of Samuel Verplanck Hoffman lay in historical and genealogical studies. They led to his taking an active part in the affairs of the New York Historical Society and becoming for ten years its President. He was also for some twenty years a Vice-President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. A direct descendant of one of the first Swedish settlers in this country, he was born in Philadelphia, went to school there and later graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. He then took courses at Johns Hopkins University in astrophysics and astronomy and was appointed Fellow in Astronomy there in 1893. His chief hobby was the search for astrolabes and his collection of them, one of the finest in the world, included the instrument used by the explorer Samuel de Champlain. His business life was passed in the management of real estate. He was always deeply interested in the General Theological Seminary of which he was a trustee and where his father had at one time been Dean.
Geoffrey Parsons
1942 Century Memorials
