George Washington Coakley Papers, 1866-1890

George Washington Coakley, A.B., L.L.D., was a prominent Rutgers College Alumnus and Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of City of New York (now referred as, New York University) who conducted notable research on Astro-Physics, particularly on the origin of meteorites and the movements of the solar system.

He was born February 22nd, 1814 in St. Thomas, West Indies, though some accounts list his place of birth as St. Bartholomew, West Indies or “Danish West Indies.” While at Rutgers College, he benefitted from the teaching of influential instructor Theodore Strong. Strong wen on to shape the minds of other scientists that studied at Rutgers. Coakley graduated from Rutgers College in 1836. He went on to study law, medicine, and theology.

He taught mathematics and astronomy at St. James College in Maryland from 1841 to 1860. (The college is incorrectly located in Indiana in an obituary for Coakley.) In 1860, he left his home in Williamsport, Maryland, to become a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of the City of New York (NYU). Coakley was a popular member of the faculty who was often a subject of parody and pranks by his students.

On April 13th, 1872, his name was printed in the “Gentlemen’s List” in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. By the 1880s, Coakley was an active member of the American Astronomical Society that met in Brooklyn, NY. He presented his papers there and was often published in The Sidereal Messenger: A Monthly Review of Astronomy (later renamed Astronomy and Astro-Physics). Many of Coakley’s articles published in The Sidereal Messenger were indexed in the French-language Revue des publications astronomiques. He gained attention in the New York Times for accurately predicting the arrival of a solar eclipse on March 16, 1885. His proven calculations predicted the eclipse’s occurrence six minutes later than the notable Science Weekly’s Almanac’s calculations for the event.

In his personal life, Coakley was, reportedly, a Democrat who enjoyed “gardening with flowers.” He listed “farming” as his profession in the 1870 national census though other census years list him as a professor. In August 1861, Coakley married Isabella Hoe Godfrey who was twenty-two years his junior. The couple had twelve children. Their eldest son, Cornelius Godfrey Coakley, became a prominent doctor. The family lived in Huntington, NY, in the 1870s and 1880s and later moved to Brooklyn, NY, in August of 1890.

An elderly Coakley delivered an address at Rutgers’ Alumni Day on June 22, 1886. While Coakley remained faculty member of the University of the City of New York well into his final days, he was no longer teaching classes. He died in Brooklyn on August 2, 1893 of pneumonia. He was buried in Hempstead, Long Island.