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MU grad aims for the stars
Doug Firebaugh ’62 enjoyed a long career of making science interesting for his students. This past fall, one of his former students thanked him by renaming the observatory in Freeport, Ill., the Doug Firebaugh Observatory.
A native of Freeport, Doug knew early on that he would attend Manchester. With family ties to the University, including his mother and his older brother, it was a natural fit for Doug. “When I graduated from high school, I only sent my application to Manchester,” he says, “because I knew that was where I wanted to go.”
Inspired by Manchester’s value of service, Doug decided to become a science teacher at a time when the nation was focused on improving science education. He received a fellowship from the University of Utah, earned his master’s degree one year after graduating from Manchester, and secured a job at Freeport High School.
Over the next 37 years, Doug‘s mission was to make science fun. “I had courses in science that seemed like considerable drudgery with no practical examples of what we were studying,” he recalls. Making science fun, he figured, would encourage people to go into the sciences. For example, as co-sponsor of the science club (the Junior Engineering Technical Society or JETS), Doug turned the first meeting each year into a chemical magic show to keep the kids interested.
Doug was often honored for his efforts. He was chosen Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher by the American Chemical Society in 1980 and honored as the Jaycee’s Outstanding Young Educator. JETS was voted the top science club in the nation in 1981, he received an Alumni Honor Award from Manchester in 1985, and he was chosen one of 10 outstanding teachers in Illinois in 1989-90.
It was the science club that undertook the project to grind a telescope mirror and create the JETS Observatory. Doug directed the observatory from the time it opened in 1967 until he retired from teaching in 2000.
As the years passed and technology advanced, one of his former students and his successor as observatory director saw the opportunity to enhance and expand the JETS Observatory and to honor Firebaugh. Renaming it was his way of thanking his former teacher. “It was an incredible honor,” Doug says.
By Ben Ogden ’12
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