Benjamin F. Peery

Benjamin Franklin Peery Jr., (4 March 1922 - 30 November 2010) was an American physicist, astronomer, and longtime professor at Indiana University and Howard University. He was the second African American person to receive a doctorate in astronomy. His father was a railway mail clerk and wrote for the Twin Cities Herald, and his mother was a school teacher. His younger brother, Nelson Peery, was a political activist and author. The Peery family moved frequently for Benjamin Peery, Sr.'s line of work, eventually settling in southeast Minnesota. The Peerys lived in Randolph, Minnesota; Wabasha, Minnesota; and eventually Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Peery attended and graduated high school. Prior to attending college, he worked as a draftsman.

After one year of college, in 1942 Peery joined the Army Air Force, in which he served from 1942 until 1945, participating in campaigns in Italy and North Africa.

Education Peery attended the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate for one year before joining the military. After completing his service, he returned to the university on the G.I. Bill to complete his studies. After receiving his bachelor's degree in physics in 1949, he worked as a physics instructor for two years at North Carolina A&T State University.

Some of his fellow students at Michigan included Edward Spiegel, Martha Hazen, Arthur Upgren and Lowell Doherty. He also studied under Leo Goldberg, Freeman Miller, and Lawrence H. Aller. While at Indiana, Peery was active in research and helped to add a 16-inch telescope to the Goethe Link Observatory in Mooresville, Indiana. He also worked with the National Science Teachers Association's (ASTA) Elementary School Science Program. In 1975–1976, he took a sabbatical leave to conduct research at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.

In 1977, he left Indiana for a position at Howard University, where he had been recruited to start an astrophysics graduate program. There, he became chair of the physics and astrophysics departments. At this point, it was estimated that Peery was one of only five Black astronomers in the United States. He remained at Howard University until 1992, when he retired and became an emeritus professor. While at Howard, he also took two years' leave at the National Science Foundation to serve as its program director for the astronomy division. Over the course of his career, he was also a member of several professional organizations, including: the International Astronomical Union; the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; the American Astronomical Society; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and as a trustee of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. He also conducted research at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and was a visiting professor at Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology and the College of William and Mary.

Legacy Peery is the namesake of the Benjamin F. Peery Jr. Diversity Award, a graduate scholarship at Indiana University.

Personal life Peery was married to Darnelle Macklin Peery, a special education teacher, whom he met while a student at Fisk University. They had one daughter, Yvany Peery, who is a psychotherapist.