"The Texas Book Two" Features Essay by Frank Bash
In his essay "McDonald Observatory: Bigger and Brighter," former director and professor emeritus Dr. Frank N. Bash retells the story of the McDonald Observatory's founding and growth, and gives a first-person account of its more recent history, including the genesis of the Visitors Center that bears his name. He also recounts stories of how the Observatory's telescopes high in the Davis Mountains of West Texas came to be built, explains the importance that the Observatory's willingness to reach out to the public has played in its continued growth and success, and provides an important lesson about how collaboration and creative funding strategies have been instrumental to the Observatory's ability to continue being a world-class research facility for The University of Texas at Austin in particular, and for the people of Texas--and, indeed, the world--in general.
The title of his essay is a nod to the book Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory by David Evans and J. Derral Mulholland, published by the University of Texas Press in 1986.
Frank Bash and Bill Hobby during the construction of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Dr. Bash's essay can be found in The Texas Book Two: More Profiles, History, and Reminiscences of the University, edited by David Dettmer and published earlier this year by the University of Texas Press. This collection includes twenty essays about The University of Texas, as well as a foreword by President Emeritus Dr. Larry R. Faulkner. The essays in this richly illustrated volume--told from the points of view of twenty-two different contributors--provide a fascinating view of some of the people, places, and historical events that compose the rich and complex history of Texas's flagship university. The Texas Book Two is available for purchase on the University of Texas Press website:
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/dettex.html
The press's web site also includes a complete table of contents of the book, as well as the full text of the book's Foreword and Introduction.
[David Dettmer]
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"The Texas Book Two" Features Essay by Frank Bash
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