Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, after serving as a member of the board of trustees since 1896. Brashear also was a trustee of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and served as President of the Academy of Science and Art. John and Phoebe Brashear were active in their church as well. He served as the choir director of Bingham Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and organized the Cantata Society, composed of church choirs from Pittsburgh's South Side. During the Panama-Pacific Exposition (1915), in which a 20" Warner-Swasey telescope with Brashear optics was displayed, Brashear was named "the State's most distinguished man" by Pennsylvania's Governor Martin Grove Brumbaugh. The telescope is still in use today at Chabot Space and Science Center at Oakland, California. John Brashear was admired and beloved by fellow western Pennsylvanians and international astronomers, who familiarly called him "Uncle John". In 1919, he suffered ptomaine poisoning (an outdated term for food poisoning), which induced a debilitating illness lasting six months. He died at age 79 at his home on Perrysville Avenue. His body was held in state in the Great Hall of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. His ashes are interred in a crypt below the Keeler Telescope at Allegheny Observatory, along with those of his wife. A plaque on the crypt reads: "We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.", a paraphrase of the last line of the poem "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil" by Sarah Williams. He was survived by a daughter and several siblings. Honors In 1902, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. He was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1910. The Brashear Association was founded in 1916 in his memory. In 2012, the John A. Brashear House and Factory at 1954 Perrysville Avenue in the Perry South neighborhood of Pittsburgh was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Named for him: The crater Brashear on the Moon The crater Brashear on Mars Asteroid 5502 Brashear Brashear High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1976) Brashear Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania One of the telescopes at the Goodsell Observatory The Brashear 11-Inch Refractor at the Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory near Pittsburgh. See also List of astronomical instrument makers Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, California References Further reading - See also later reprints. Obituary notices: External links "The Unexpected Hero