Preface

Abstract

Extract This biography traces the professional lives of Aden and Marjorie Meinel from their fascinating ancestry through the Depression, World War II, and advanced academic degrees to careers at Yerkes Observatory, founding of the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Steward Observatory, and the founding of the College of Optical Sciences on the campus of the University of Arizona (UA), and finally to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Interspersed with the academic posts were groundbreaking publications on solar energy and also high-level consultancy on aerial surveillance (spy planes and satellites) during the Cold War. Aden’s knowledge of rockets and optics placed him in high demand in Washington, DC, and elsewhere around the world, to the extent that he was once picked up in a Colorado pasture by helicopter while on vacation and then flown in a Lockheed JetStar from Durango to an urgent top-secret meeting in Washington. Aden and Marjorie cultivated several fields of science and technology to produce significant changes to society during the 20th century. Born four years after World War I into middle-class families in Pasadena, California, they used rocket science, astrophysics, optical science, mechanical engineering, and renewable solar energy to change our world. Aden’s charismatic leadership, brilliant mind, and amazing ability to see, analyze, and dissect entire complicated systems long before others served him well.