Los Angeles County
Biographies
BEATRICE
MAYBERRY HUMASON
A
gifted scientist in her own right, Beatrice Mayberry Humason is the only
daughter of the distinguished Mayberry family who were pioneers in the
development of Alhambra, doing a great deal of subdividing in the area with the
firm of Mayberry and Myron. Mrs. Humason
is a physicist in charge of data reduction and analysis of test data in the
Underwater Ordnance department, Missile Systems division at the Naval Ordnance
Test Station in Pasadena. She has also
published under her own name a number of articles on astronomy in scientific
periodicals.
Born
in in Los Angeles on August 3, 1896, the daughter of Harry H. and Beatrice
(Davis) Mayberry, Mrs. Humason has lived in Alhambra since she was ten days
old. Her father was born Harry H. Wing,
in Bangor, Maine, in 1867, the son of George and Emily (Gray) Wing. George Wing was a professor who developed the
“Wing Symbol,” finger symbols used by deaf-mutes today, and was a descendant of
the Stuart’s of England and a direct descendant of the judges who pronounced
sentence for the beheading of Charles I.
When Mrs. Humason’s father was still an infant, his mother married
Edward L. Mayberry who legally adopted her son, giving Harry H. Wing the name
Harry Mayberry. Harry Mayberry came to
Alhambra in 1879, when he was twelve years old, with his mother and
step-father, Edward L. Mayberry, who had come to California during the Gold
Rush and became a builder in San Francisco; he also built some of the
government buildings in Sacramento, later coming to southern California where
he built the Hemet Dam and founded the City of Hemet. The Mayberry family owned the El Molino Ranch
in what is now part of San Marino. After
selling the ranch to Mr. Huntington in 1904, the Mayberry’s moved to 1117 North
Stoneman Avenue in Alhambra which has been Mrs. Humason’s home up to the
present time. In addition to being a
subdivider Harry Mayberry was a manufacturer of automatic weighing machinery. He died in 1920.
Mrs.
Humason’s mother, Beatrice (Davis) Mayberry, was born in 1867 in Joliet,
Illinois, and passed away in 1944. She
was the daughter of Elizabeth Davis, a cousin of Florence Nightingale, the
noted English nurse, and was very active in the early days of Alhambra in the
Women’s Club and the Order of Eastern Star, and was one of the charter members
and founders of the Episcopal Church of Alhambra. Harry Mayberry donated the land for the
Episcopal Church and organized a committee to build it. The church was completed in 1908. Mrs. Humason is still a member of the church
and has been since its founding.
Receiving
her elementary education at Garfield School in Alhambra, Mrs. Humason attended
Ramona Convent for a time and graduated from Alhambra High School in 1915. She attended the University of California at
Berkeley for one year and graduated from Stanford University in 1919 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree, having majored in mathematics and physics with a minor
in astronomy and chemistry. Mrs. Humason
taught in the applied mathematics department at Stanford University for one
year.
Engaged
in research at Mount Wilson Observatory from 1920 to 1925, Mrs. Humason worked
with Dr. Harlow Shapley, who in 1921 became director of Harvard Observatory, on
variable stars and star clusters, later working with Dr. George Ellery Hale,
founder and director of Mount Wilson Observatory, on sun spots; she
collaborated with Dr. Seth B. Nicholson on the same subject. Mrs. Humason worked off and on at the observatory
until 1935. After teaching at Flintridge
School for Girls for one year, Mrs. Humason became associated with the
California Institute of Technology on a torpedo project in 1944, transferring
in 1945 with the project, to the United States Navy, under Civil Service, with
whom she is still employed.
On
February 7, 1925, the former Miss Beatrice Mayberry was married to Lewis H.
Humason before Bishop Johnson in the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in San
Gabriel, the same church where she, her father, and her son were baptized. Mr. and Mrs. Humason are the parents of one
son, Harry Wing Humason, who was born on December 24, 1925, and who now lives
in Whittier. He is a graduate of
Alhambra High School and is still a member of the Episcopal Church of
Alhambra. He is married to the former
Miss Jean Trowbridge and they are the parents of two sons, Robert Allan, born
on February 7, 1956, and Stephen Howard, born on March 10, 1957. Harry Humason and his family are very close
to his mother and have a deep affection for the family home in Alhambra,
considering it their own second home.
Harry Humason, a mechanical engineer, is also at Naval Ordnance Test
Station as head of Production Design Engineering Section.
Mrs.
Humason was one of the original members of the Rose Bowl Riders of Pasadena and
has held many offices in the group. One
of the members of the board of directors of the Alhambra-San Gabriel
Philharmonic Artists Association since its beginning in 1945, Mrs. Humason is
also active in the alumnae group of her college sorority, Sigma Kappa. She is also a member of the American
Association of University Women and a member of the Pasadena chapter of the
Stanford University Alumni Association.
Mrs.
Humason formerly considered horseback riding her hobby, but now prefers
gardening and listening to good classical music; she has a fine collection of
records. Her friends consider that
“doing for others” is one of Mrs. Humason’s hobbies. She is always quick to see that those who
work under her at the Naval Ordnance Test Station receive recognition for their
achievements and receive promotions due them, while often minimizing her own
accomplishments.
Mrs.
Humason is well aware of her responsibility to the nation and to the world in
her work on missiles; she feels that, in addition to strengthening the defense
of America, missile research leads to many discoveries which are useful in
peacetime.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 454-456,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2013 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES