In Memoriam: Bob Kennedy

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 23, 2024

I think everyone has a uniform and does not realize it. When I think of Bob, who was tragically lost in a bicycle accident on July 20, I think of a baseball cap, khakis (shorts or long depending on the season), a plaid shirt (with the sleeves rolled up if it’s warm), white athletic socks to his mid-calf, and either boat shoes or sneakers depending on what he was doing. He often had binoculars around his neck, unless he was running or biking – something that was a passion with him. He became more serious about marathons after he retired and I would look at him and think, “How do you do all that?” He encouraged countless MMA interns to join him in the Brant Point Runners every summer and I am sure some of them still run because of Bob.


When the MMA first hired Bob back in 2001, I did not realize that I likely read the “Ranger Rick” issue he was in when I was younger. He was once featured in that volume – and countless others of a more serious and grown-up nature – for his work in ornithology. He started his career studying monkey-eating eagles in the Philippines; I believe spending a lot of time in trees – so you can see he was already athletic. I think that is why ospreys seemed to be his big love – and a focus of his when he was here. He was instrumental in having osprey poles installed on the island and started a program in which he tracked several of them on their migrations. They are only a seasonal visitor – flying as far south as South American for the winter. And as he worked more with Edith F. Andrews, our ornithologist for many years, he came to grow his love for barn owls and they worked together to support them here on the island as he developed a focused barn owl house program via the MMA.  Today, there are over seventy barn owl boxes on island that are monitored through this MMA program that Bob was still running with Mitch Blake, Tom and Kim Griswold, and Ginger Andrews, daughter of Edith.


So when you see an osprey overhead or the chiming of a barn owl, think of Bob. Thank you, Bob.  


JNLF

 

The Fisherman’s Hymn


The osprey sails above the sound,
The geese are gone, the gulls are flying;
The herring shoals swarm thick around,
The nets are launched, the boats are plying;
  Yo ho, my hearts! let ’s seek the deep,   
   Raise high the song, and cheerily wish her,
  Still as the bending net we sweep,
   “God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!”
 
She brings us fish—she brings us spring,
Good times, fair weather, warmth, and plenty,   
 Fine stores of shad, trout, herring, ling,
Sheepshead and drum, and old-wives dainty.
  Yo ho, my hearts! let ’s seek the deep,
   Ply every oar, and cheerily wish her,
  Still as the bending net we sweep,   
   “God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!”
 
She rears her young on yonder tree,
She leaves her faithful mate to mind ’em;
Like us, for fish, she sails to sea,
And, plunging, shows us where to find ’em.   
  Yo ho, my hearts! let ’s seek the deep,
   Ply every oar, and cheerily wish her,
  While the slow bending net we sweep,
   “God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher!“

 

- Alexander Wilson (1766-1813)



Recent Posts

Miss Herschel

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 10, 2025
A re-blog from years past. The item you see here is a small piece of what once was. Upon her visit to Europe as a young woman’s chaperone in 1857 –1858, Maria Mitchell visited many of the major observatories of Europe and met many of the movers and shakers in the scientific, art, and literary worlds of the continent. While Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) and her brother, Sir William (1738 – 1822), were long dead, Maria was able to meet Caroline’s nephew (William’s son), Sir John Herschel (1792 – 1871). All three were astronomers, though Caroline found herself having to give credit – or have her brother accept credit – for much of her work because she was a woman. She has often been credited with the being the first woman to discover a comet. She was likely not – and the other woman who was the first lost credit through history as she had to “give” her comet discovery to her husband. See a pattern? Caroline was just one of many women in a long line of, “She couldn’t possibly do that – she is a woman!” As Maria once said, “But a woman, what more could you ask to be?” But back to this small item. It was a page from one of Caroline Herschel’s notebook’s, torn from its home by John Herschel to serve a s a memento for Maria of her visit to the family’s home. Maria was a bit shocked but . . . she took it! Over the years, the paper tore and ripped and just crumbled away until Maria finally decided that to save it, she needed to past it into one of her own journals. And thus, we have what we have. I assume Caroline’s notations refer to her brother William – “Wol” and Woll.” It could be an “I” but it really looks like an “O.” She is considered the world’s first professional woman astronomer – she would be compensated for her work after some time – and she warrants a greater look at – too much for a blog. So I encourage you to go take a look at her. Maria would want you to! JNLF

From The Rear

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 3, 2025
I am not so sure our founders would love that title but the image is of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO) “from the rear.” I love this image as it is really the only one we have – unless you count the one that is taken from farther away and from further into the backyard of the Mitchell House. That one allows you to see the natural slope of the Mitchell House back lawn which would be altered when they added the Curator’s Cottage. Both of the images were taken before the Curator’s Cottage was added at the back of the Mitchell House in the early 1930s – and this one you see here was taken before 1922 when they added the Astronomical Study onto the MMO. It also shows the original dome – which was copper – before it was replaced in 1951 – which is the current dome. The copper did not hold up to our climate here – salt spray, damp, fog. But the new one, shipped over from England, has held up well. The current dome was donated by Margaret Underwood Davis (MMA board president at the time), in memory of her son, Cushing Davis who was an amateur astronomer. Margaret Davis served as president from 1930-1946 and again from 1949-1953. The image tells you some other things too. For instance, the grape arbor behind the Mitchell House is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell’s (Maria’s uncle) grape vine – I have blogged about it several times before – and you can see it in this image. You can also see how the Milk Room connects to the 1850s kitchen. The 1850s kitchen was added by Peleg Mitchell Jr and it’s the first little wart you see with the white pipe attached. The next wart is the Milk Room – also added by Peleg – it’s the one with the shutters on the window. Both still exist it’s just the Curator’s Cottage was attached in the 1930s. You will see another chimney too. It appears alongside the white pipe. That is likely the original chimney to what is now the Astronomer’s Cottage at the MMA. We acquired the Cottage in the 1920s but I believe all of the additions, and the removal of the chimney, were done before we were given it.  Fun! JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: November 2025

November 1, 2025
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews
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