John Monroe Van Vleck

John Monroe Van Vleck (March 4, 1833 – November 4, 1912) was an American mathematician and astronomer. He taught astronomy and mathematics at Wesleyan University for more than fifty years and served as the university's acting president twice. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1850 and began teaching at Greenwich Academy. He received an LL.D. from Northwestern University in 1876.

He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1869, he was a member of the Solar Eclipse Expedition to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The Van Vleck Observatory at Wesleyan University was named after him, She died on December 26, 1899, and he died on November 4, 1912. They were survived by a son and three daughters: Edward, Anna, Clara, and Jane.

Edward was a leading mathematician in the United States and taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became professor emeritus in 1926. Edward's son, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, was a physicist and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977. John Monroe, Edward, and John Hasbrouck Van Vleck are related to the software engineer Tom Van Vleck, who co-authored an early email program.