Forest Hills history: More physicists next door

by Adam E. Sieminski

The late Ann Kessler wrote an article for Forest Hills Connection in September 2014 titled “The physicists next door: Men on the moon.” Kessler became intrigued when she discovered the unusual number of scientists who once lived on the 2900 block of Brandywine Street NW and nearby.

One of the physicists mentioned prominently was Carl C. Kiess, at 2928 Brandywine.

Carl Clarence Kiess. One of the moon’s craters is named for him.

Sadly, Kessler was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016 and never had the opportunity to follow up on her superb research. She would have been delighted to learn that Carl Kiess was not the only physicist in the Kiess family – and that these experts included two extraordinarily talented women.

Harriet Knudsen Kiess

Harriet Knudsen Kiess (1894–1987) was born in Chicago and in 1916 graduated from Northwestern University, majoring in math. In 1917 she was hired as a “computor” on staff at the Allegheny Observatory. Carl Kiess, from the National Bureau of Standards, was also working there part time. Harriet and Carl fell in love and were married in 1919. Harriet moved to Washington with Carl, and while raising four children managed to earn a master’s degree in physics and co-authored several of Carl’s papers.

In 1945, Harriet was appointed as a teaching associate in physics at George Washington University. Among her accomplishments: She is credited for pioneering work on the lack of oxygen and water vapor in the atmosphere on Mars. In the fall of 1956, newspapers across the U.S. reported that “the Mars project was led by Carl Kiess, assisted by Charles Corliss and his spouse Edith Corliss, both Bureau of Standards employees, and by Harriet Kiess.”

(The Corlisses lived at 2955 Albemarle Street and referred to their home as the “Forest Hills Laboratory” where Edith, in later years, worked on audiology matters and became an expert on hearing aids.)

The Kiess/Corliss team arrived in Hilo, Hawaii, in late June 1956. According to published accounts, “trucked their equipment to the U.S. Weather Bureau’s new Mauna Loa Observatory… and during July the couples made long, intensive observations of Mars. Mrs. Kiess and Mrs. Corliss kept house in the isolated observatory, as well as taking their regular turns at the spectrograph.” Their findings remain valid.

In May 1957, Carl, Harriet and Charles returned to Mauna Loa for groundbreaking work on the atmosphere of Jupiter. Harriet is listed on ScholarGPS as affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1960-1962, with Georgetown College (now University) in 1959, and is credited on six scientific papers with Carl – the last one in 1963.

Carl and Harriet Kiess conveyed their love of physics, astronomy and spectroscopy to all their children… and even a grandchild.

Margaret Kiess Krogdahl

Margaret Florence Kiess (1920-2013) was Carl and Harriet’s first child. She attended the former Woodrow Wilson High School, then graduated from Swarthmore College in 1941 with honors in mathematics. In 1944, she became the first woman to earn a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Chicago. She studied under Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist. Her dissertation titled “Physical Problems Related to the Hydrogen and Helium Lines in Stellar Spectra” carried on some of the spectroscopy work of both her parents. While at Chicago, she met fellow student Wasley Krogdahl and the two were married in 1942. Both were awarded fellowships at Yerkes Observatory. The couple then moved to Lexington, where Wasley taught astronomy at the University of Kentucky, and Margaret helped him edit his publications.

John Anthony Kiess (1924-1929) died at Children’s Hospital after surgery for a brain tumor. Kessler’s 2014 FHC article noted that “upon his retirement from NBS in 1957 at age 70, Carl Kiess asked that all contributions for his party be given to Children’s Hospital.” Carl and John are buried together in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Carl’s hometown.

Norman Kiess, in his 1947 Wilson High School yearbook photo.

Norman Halvor Kiess (1930-2009) graduated from Wilson High, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Swarthmore College. He received a master’s degree in physics from the University of Maryland, and in 1963, a doctorate in the same field from Johns Hopkins University. While working at the National Bureau of Standards, he wrote several scientific papers on spectroscopy. In the late 1960s, he moved to Texas to teach physics at what is now Stephen F. Austin State University, and he later taught at the University of Southern Mississippi. Like his sister Margaret, he was a member of the Sigma Xi scientific honor society. After the death of his father, he returned to Brandywine Street, where he was a self-employed investor. Norm loved to let friends know that he was a Wilson High School classmate of Warren Buffett.

Edward Kiess

Edward Marion Kiess, born in 1933, followed his siblings to Deal Junior High and Wilson, and like Norm, attended Phillips Exeter Academy for one year. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955. He completed one year of graduate school at Berkeley, then joined the U.S. Army. He married Ruth Marie Stromberg in 1959 and received a Ph.D. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1965. While at Penn State, he was awarded a patent on Brillouin spectroscopy, a technique used to determine the elastic properties of materials. After brief assignments teaching physics at Lycoming College and working as a physicist at the Battelle Labs, he spent the rest of his career at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia from 1968 to 1993 as a professor of physics. In retirement, he continued to work on physics issues related to his research and teaching interests – keeping a hand in the now legendary domain of the Kiess family.

Edward is not the last of the physicists in the Kiess family. Thomas Edward Kiess, the son of Edward and Ruth, is also a Ph.D. physicist. He worked at the National Research Council and the U.S. Department of Energy.