Coming to Pomona in January, 1888, to prepare a class of students for the opening of Pomona College, Prof. Frank Parkhurst Brackett has been continuously identified with the development of this institiution, whose growth and influence has steadily increased year by year.
A native of the Bay State, Professor Brackett was born June 16, 1865, at Provincetown, Mass. He comes of a family of educators, his fathers, S.H. Brackett, a graduate of Harvard in 1862, being for twenty-five years a teacher of science in St. Johnsbury Academy (Vermont), and his mother, Mary A. (Thomas) Brackett, a native of Maine, was a teacher in Cambridge, Mass., before her marriage. In addition to his scholastic work, S.H. Brackett invented and built scientific apparatus used in schools and colleges.
Professor Brackett began his career in early life as a district school teacher in New Hampshire, then going to St. Johnsbury Academy as teacher of algebra; later he was principal of Phillips Academy at Danville, Vt., and acting principal of Caledonia Academy at Pelham, Vt. These positions were held previous to his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1887, and where, three years later, in 1890, he received his A.M. degree. In 1887, Professor Brackett came to Los Angeles as instructor in McPherron Academy. It was while engaged there that he was invited by Dr. C.B. Sumner to come to Pomona and begin the preparatory work for the first group of students who would enter Pomona College. Accordingly, the first of January, 1888, Professor Brackett opened the work with about a dozen students in the chapel of Pilgrim Church, and this class, with a few additions, was prepared, during the next six months, for the formal opening of the college, which occurred September 12, 1888. In 1890, when the college entered upon its collegiate work, Mr. Brackett was elected to a professorship in mathematics. At the completion of Pomona College Observatory, in 1911, Professor Brackett was made director, and since then much of his time has been given to the development of this work. In 1911 he was a member of the Smithsonian Astronomical Expedition to Algeria and in 1913 of the Expedition to Mt. Whitney. In 1918, during the great solar eclipse, he was a member of the Mt. Wilson Observatory Eclipse Expedition to Green River, Wyo. Professor Brackett is editor of the "Publication of the Astronomical Society of Pomona College," which brings to the college valuable exchanges from other observatories throughout the world.
In 1916 Professor Brackett was appointed American delegate on the Commission for Relief in Belgium. He remained there for six months in the relief work in the province of Brabant, with headquarters at Brussels. On his return home, after the entrance of America into the war, he took up the work of secretary of the Local Exemption Board No. 2, serving until the close of the war.
In politics Professor Brackett is an Independent Republican, giving his support to the best men and measures, especially in local affairs. He is a member of the University Club of Los Angeles, Phi Beta Kappa, and numerous national mathematical and scientific societies. He was an Honorary Fellow of Clark University in 1902 and 1903.
On August 15, 1889, Professor Brackett was united in marriage with Miss Lucretia Burdick, daughter of Cyrus Burdick, Pomona's honored pioneer citizen. The story of the Burdick family and their intimate connection with the early days of Pomona is given in Chapter Four of the historical section of this volume, Professor Brackett having prepared this history, in collaboration with Mrs. Brackett. Professor and Mrs. Brackett have two sons--Frederick Sumner and Frank Parkhurst, Jr. Frederick Sumner Brackett was married in 1918 to Miss Agnes Leek, both being graduates of Pomona College. After serving for a year in the Bureau of Standards at Washington, D.C., Frederick S. Brackett is now stationed at Mt. Wilson Observatory.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 8/23/08, Pages 254 & 257
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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