Al Webber

Alfred C. Webber, President, 1977-1979

Luther J. Porter Educator Award, 1999

Astronomer of the Year Award, 1994

            Al Webber, born October 10, 1907 in Lisbon Falls, Maine, is a graduate of Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (B.S., cum laude, physics, 1928), and Boston University (A.M., physics, 1940).

            Al started his career as an educator, teaching in public high schools in Franklin and Brookline, Massachusetts.   In 1942 he joined the Du Pont Company’s Plastics Department Research Laboratory in Arlington, New Jersey, where he set up the company’s first Physical Measurements Laboratory.  When that department was moved to the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Al followed.  He developed standardized tests methods for comparison of products in research and development throughout the company.  Al was president, American Society for Testing Materials, 1962, and plastics chairman of the International Standards Organization.  He retired from Du Pont in 1972.

            Lunar occultation timing is a keen interest and for many years Al reported his data to the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA).  Al has been a director and officer of the Tuscarora Lapidary Society and a member of  Delaware Photographic Society.  His principal activity today is the collection, preparation and stereo photography and of microscopic minerals, or Micromounts.  He recently attended a meeting of the Canadian Micromounters Association at Brock University in Canada.  Al’s wife, Margaret, died in 1984.  He has a daughter and three sons.

            Major accomplishment as president:  bringing DAS members together socially at star parties and picnics at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.