Victor Manuel Blanco was born on the island of Puerto Rico on March 10th 1918. He became fascinated with the stars at a young age, and would eventually pursue a career in the matter after taking an astronomy elective course from a physics grad student. Blanco, saving enough funds from carpentry, would attend the University of Chicago for a quarter in 1939; he'd then earn a scholarship from the school, allowing him to continue his studies. Blanco's studies would be temporarily disrupted however, as he was drafted to the military in 1941. During his time serving, he was a meteorologist in pacific war zones, communicating expected weather conditions to pilots.
After finishing his service, Blanco would return to the University of Chicago in 1946. His time spent in meteorology in the military gave him enough credit to obtain his Bachelor's Degree, to which he would then begin graduate studies. He left Chicago for the University of California where he'd craft his PhD thesis: "Luminosity Function and Space Distribution of A0 Stars." Blanco would then return to the University of Puerto Rico to teach astronomy and physics, but his position unfortunately had to be cut due to lack of funding.
Blanco's accomplishments are numerous. He was the head of the astronomy and physics division of the U.S Naval Observatory, director of the Case Institute of Technology, (CIOT) provided astronomical facilities primarily for Latin American astronomers, (At the time only 10% of the light-gathering power of the world’s telescopes was located in the Southern Hemisphere), and his various observations on late type stars on the galactic bulge provided information on the distance to the center of the galaxy.
Victor M. Blanco was a leader and role model to not just the Latino scientific community, but to the scientific community as a whole. A 4-meter telescope would be built in chile would be named after him, honoring his legacy as an Astronomical Hero.
Sources:
https://baas.aas.org/pub/victor-m-blanco-1918-2011/release/1
https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/AJ.../0057//0000007.000.html
https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/
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