Born in 1905 in Norman, Oklahoma. He studied at the University of Wisconsin, earning a bachelor's degree in physics. He worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he was tasked with investigating sources of radio interference. In the course of this work, he discovered a steady signal from the center of the Galaxy. Due to the priority of engineering over science at Bell Labs, he was not allowed to develop the discovery further, and he died young in 1950 without receiving widespread recognition. The unit of spectral flux density is named in his honor.
