Family, early education, attendance at University of California at Berkeley, 1924-1928, and change to major in astronomy. Influence of William F. Myer, Charles D. Shane, Seth Nicholson, Armin O. Leuschner. Research at Mt. Wilson Observatory with Walter Adams, Alfred Joy, Roscoe F. Sanford, John E. Merrill, Gustav Stromberg, Theodore Dunham, 1929-1930; work with Nicholson on Pluto, with Milton Humason on specta of stars, with Edwin Hubble on red shift. Return to Berkeley, 1930-1934; marriage, research at Lick Observatory for thesis, 1932. Career at Lick, association with Hubble, work on spectrum of crab nebula, direct rotation of galaxies, redshifts, gaseous nebulae. Work with Walter Baade and Horace Babcock, with Jerzy Neyman in statistics; position at Berkeley. War work at MIT Radiation Laboratory and Kellogg Laboratory, and Caltech. Return to Lick, 1945-1960; large telescope project. Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, 1960; Lick moves to Santa Cruz; difficulties for directors of observatories, operation of Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo. Social and scientific relations with Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason. Topics include early work on redshifts, preservation of his papers, thoughts on theories of the universe, ground and space based astronomy, his work on Mt. Wilson, his move to Kitt Peak, and public relations of astronomy. Also prominently mentioned are: Charles Donald Shane, and Adriaan van Maanen.