Ormond Stone
American astronomer, mathematician and educator (1847–1933)
Ormond Stone (January 11, 1847 – January 17, 1933), was an American astronomer, mathematician and educator. He was the director of Cincinnati Observatory and subsequently the first director of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia, where he trained a significant number of scientists. He served as the editor of the Annals of Mathematics and towards the end of his life made donations which led to the founding of the Fairfax Public Library System.
Early years
Stone was born in Pekin, Illinois, to Methodist minister Elijah and Sophia Louise (Creighton) Stone. While attending Chicago High School, he met Truman Henry Safford, an astronomer at the recently completed Dearborn Observatory. Stone became his pupil, quickly beginning his lifelong interest in astronomy. In 1866, Stone enrolled at the Old University of Chicago, graduating with a degree of master's degree in 1870. Working his way through school, he served as an instructor in 1867–1868 at Racine College in Wisconsin, then at the Northwestern Female College (which is now a part of Northwestern University) at Evanston, Illinois in 1869. Also that year, he participated in what would be the first of three eclipse expeditions in his lifetime. It was on this trip to Des Moines, Iowa, with Safford that he met astronomers from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO).
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q945845. VIAF identifies the subject as 35230213. The Library of Congress control number is no2006069784. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847, 1933, 1866 and 1870.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ormond Stone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.