The History of OSA
Early Secretaries of OSA
Here we look back at the Optical Society’s early secretaries, with a special emphasis on Frank Ross, the first person to hold that position. Secretaries were charged with handling the Society’s routine business, including taking notes at council meetings, negotiating with hotels for meeting space, and notifying the membership of upcoming events. After OSA’s Executive Office was established in 1959, those functions were transferred to the executive secretary.
Frank E. Ross
Frank Elmore Ross, who served as the first secretary of OSA, was born April 2, 1874, in San Francisco. In 1896, he earned a B.S. from the University of California, where he majored in astronomy and geodesy. After teaching for a year, he returned to Berkeley as a Fellow in mathematics. Specifically, he studied celestial mechanics and the determination of planetary orbits. In 1898, he became a Fellow in astronomy at the Lick Observatory.
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