Oscar Monnig

Oscar E. Monnig (September 4, 1902 – May 4, 1999) was an American amateur astronomer, acknowledged for his contributions to meteoritics.

Private life

Monnig was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States. In 1925 he received a law degree from the University of Texas. He worked for the family dry goods business and was its president from 1974 to 1981, when it was sold.

In 1941 he married Juanita Mickle, who died in 1996. They had no children. Monnig died in the city where he was born on May 4, 1999.

Astronomy

In the 1920s Monnig started to be interested in astronomy. He founded the Texas Observers astronomy club and between 1931 and 1947 he published a monthly newsletter – the Texas Observers Bulletin – writing especially about issues of amateur astronomers' interest, such as variable stars, meteors, comets, and the planets.

In the late-1920s, Monnig developed an interest in meteorites and their contribution to astronomers' studies on the origins of the Solar System. He was a founding member of the Society for Research on Meteorites (later renamed Meteoritical Society).