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A. Lawrence Rotch

Meteorologist

Centurion, 1903–1912

Full Name Abbott Lawrence Rotch

Born 6 January 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts

Died 7 April 1912 in Boston, Massachusetts

Buried Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Proposed by John K. Rees and Percival Lowell

Elected 5 December 1903 at age forty-two

Century Memorial

The scientific career of Abbott Lawrence Rotch, Professor of Meteorology at Harvard, was a notable one. Graduating at the Institute of Technology in 1884, he thenceforth devoted his life, and in part his fortune, to meteorological science. The year of his graduation he built the Blue Hill Observatory at Milton, Massachusetts, and did not cease to conduct it till his death. The value of his regularly published observations was recognized throughout America and Europe. He also took part in scientific expeditions in South and North America, Europe, and Africa. Among his writings of general interest were: Sounding the Ocean, and The Conquest of the Air. His was a happy life of scientific work.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1913 Century Association Yearbook