The Tombaugh family will be honored at a reception from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, on the fourth floor east of NMSU’s Branson Library. The public is invited.

The date is the anniversary of the official announcement of Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto, March 13, 1930.

Patricia Tombaugh, the scientist’s widow, and their children Annette and Alden Tombaugh endorsed the gift. Mrs. Tombaugh said the family is “pleased to have the papers with the Rio Grande Historical Collections. We feel that this is the appropriate place for Clyde’s papers. He had a very close association with NMSU lasting over 40 years.”

The gift assures that Tombaugh’s papers will be preserved and made available for research use. “It is of profound importance that these documents join those of other scientists
available in other repositories throughout the country,” said former NMSU astronomer Herb Beebe, who played a vital role in facilitating the donation.

Included among the papers are materials concerning Tombaugh’s early career at Lowell Observatory, where he discovered Pluto, and at White Sands Missile Range. The papers are significant not only for their documentation of Tombaugh himself, but also for evidence of the history of astronomy, physics and related sciences. Of special interest is Tombaugh’s correspondence with prominent astronomers and space scientists, including Wernher von Braun and Carl Sagan, and with the directors of observatories, including Lick Observatory and Lowell Observatory.

For more information call Molly Molloy at (505) 646-6931.

Photo is available at http://kiernan.nmsu.edu/newsphoto/tombaugh_86.jpg.
For a print, call (505) 646-3221.
CUTLINE:  The late Clyde Tombaugh is shown in his NMSU office in this 1986 file photo. Tombaugh’s family has donated his papers to the Rio Grande Historical Collections of the NMSU Library. (NMSU photo by Sterling Trantham)

Karl Hill
March 2, 2001

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