in 1942, where he remained until 1948. Role in discovering Pluto Through his uncle, Percival Lowell, and his own father, Roger Putnam gained a love of astronomy and was an amateur astronomer for most of his life. Percival Lowell died in 1916. He named Harcourt Amory (his cousin, college roommate and best friend) and his wife, Constance Lowell, executors of his estate. Although Constance Lowell received a $150,000 lump-sum payment, a generous yearly income, and her husband's personal property (including their opulent Boston home), the Lowell Observatory received the bulk of Lowell's money. Amory, meanwhile, was also named the sole trustee of the Lowell Observatory. Constance Lowell felt the will was unfair and went to court to break it. After convincing Amory to resign as trustee, Constance Lowell also induced George Putnam (Roger's older brother) to decline the position. Constance Lowell then named Guy Lowell, Percival Lowell's third cousin, as trustee—believing she could dominate him. But Guy Lowell fought Constance's attempt to break the will. The lawsuit was settled in Guy Lowell's favor in 1925, but not before the estate had spent more than half its $2.3 million trust fund. The lawsuit left the observatory with few funds for research or for the purchase of new equipment. Guy Lowell died in 1927, and the trusteeship of Lowell Observatory passed to Roger Putnam. Percival Lowell had predicted the existence of a "Planet X"—a possible ninth planet—in 1905, but his subsequent death in 1916 and Constance Lowell's lawsuit had largely mothballed the search for the celestial body. Putnam, however, was determined to find "Planet X." Spending several months a year at the Lowell Observatory, Putnam resolved to build a new refracting telescope and astrograph at the Observatory to revive the search. The reluctant staff hesitated to spend the Observatory's limited funds on the new telescope until Putnam forced the issue. To fund construction, Putnam persuaded his uncle, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, to provide $10,000 for the new telescope. To save money, Putnam ordered the mounting to be built on-site in the observatory workshop rather than by a contractor. Observatory Director V. M. Slipher designed the telescope. When one of the lens components was ground too thin, a new component had to be built. Putnam paid the $6,000 replacement cost out of his own funds. The new telescope was used by Clyde Tombaugh in the search for "Planet X." On February 18, 1930, Tombaugh