Mather was an accomplished amateur astronomer and mechanical engineering graduate (1907) of Iowa State.

The facility was named after Erwin W. Fick (1897–1975), an amateur astronomer and retired member of the U.S.

New imaging devices, such as the CCD (charge-coupled device) camera installed in 1990, and the short focal length of the telescope allowed researchers to obtain wide-field views of the sky to very faint limits.

Measurements gathered by the Mather telescope could be used to complement data obtained by larger observatories, which often sacrifice wide views for fine detail.

It was the last astronomical research observatory operated by a college or university at a dark-sky site in the state of Iowa.