Astronomer Clarence C. Cleminshaw, 83

Clarence C. Cleminshaw, a lawyer who became an astronomer and then joined the Griffith Observatory when the Los Angeles planetarium was in its infancy, has died of cancer.

Cleminshaw, director emeritus of the observatory since his retirement in 1969, was 83 and died Saturday in Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

The observatory in Griffith Park was only a year old when Cleminshaw came to it in 1936 as assistant director. In 1958 he succeeded Dinsmore Alter as director on Alter’s retirement and presided over the observatory in an era when Sputnik had forced Americans to look to the sky.

Brief Law Practice

He was a 1926 graduate of Harvard Law School who “practiced law four years because my father wanted me to.” But a night school class in astronomy sparked his interest in the science and he went to the University of Michigan, obtaining a doctorate in astronomy in 1934.

Apart from his regular planetarium shows at Griffith Observatory, many of which he planned a year ahead of time, Cleminshaw was a lecturer. An observatory aide estimated that he had given more than 8,000 lectures to more than 1.5 million schoolchildren and service club members during his tenure.

During the 1940s he also wrote a monthly astronomy column for The Times and in 1958 told Times columnist Gene Sherman that he “never had been interested in basic research. I’m interested in popularizing it. I think it’s very good for people to have some idea of the universe in which they live. You get a philosophy from the stars. Pretty soon, you don’t pay any more attention to all the nettlesome details that used to bother you.”

Instructor for Astronauts

He also taught celestial navigation to the Apollo astronauts, wrote “Beginner’s Guide to the Skies,” was co-author of “Pictorial Astronomy,” a textbook now in its fifth edition, and taught at USC. After his retirement he was active as a volunteer at the Braille Institute, where he taught a course in astronomy using Braille star maps he created himself.

Cleminshaw is survived by his wife, Dixie, his daughters Marian McClellan and Carol Ball, five grandchildren, a great-grandchild and a brother, Charles. A memorial service has been scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at First United Methodist Church of Glendale. In lieu of flowers the family is asking that contributions be made to the Nature Conservancy’s Santa Cruz Island Project, 213 Sterns Wharf, Santa Barbara, 93101.