James Lick

James Lick (born Aug. 25, 1796, Stumpstown [now Fredericksburg], Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 1, 1876, San Francisco) was a U.S. philanthropist who endowed the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, Calif. After an incomplete elementary education and an apprenticeship as a carpenter, Lick worked for a year as a piano maker in Baltimore, a trade he resumed after spending 17 years in South America. In 1848 he arrived in San Francisco and at once commenced...