Priscilla Fairfield Bok

Priscilla Fairfield Bok
Born	April 14, 1896
Died	November 1975 (aged 79)
Nationality	American
Fields	astronomy
Institutions	Mount Stromlo Observatory
Known for	star clusters, Milky Way

Priscilla Fairfield Bok (April 14, 1896 – November 1975) was an American astronomer and the wife of Dutch-born astronomer Bart Bok, Director of Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia and later of Steward Observatory in Arizona, US. Their harmonious marriage accompanied the four decades of their close scientific collaboration, in which "it is difficult and pointless to separate his achievements from hers". They co-authored a number of academic papers on star clusters, stellar magnitudes, and the structure of the Milky Way galaxy. The Boks displayed great mutual enthusiasm for explaining astronomy to the public: described as "salesmen of the Milky Way" by The Boston Globe, their general interest book The Milky Way went through five editions and was said to be "one of the most successful astronomical texts ever written".

Fairfield's family lived in Littleton, Massachusetts, where her father was a Unitarian minister. She worked to be able to afford the tuition fees at nearby Boston University. On weekends, she would bribe the watchman to allow her access to the University's solar telescope on the roof (a telescope later named in her honour). She published an article on sunspot observations in Popular Astronomy in 1916. Fairfield undertook her graduate studies with W. W. Campbell of Lick Observatory, and after graduating from UC Berkeley in 1921, was rejected from a job at the General Electric Company on declaring that she eventually wanted to be an astronomer. She rejected two West Coast offers in favour of Smith College Observatory in Massachusetts. There she began working on RR Lyrae variable stars on weekends with Harlow Shapley and Bertil Lindblad at the Harvard College Observatory.

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