Harry Yandell Benedict (November 14, 1869 – May 10, 1937) was an American astronomer and mathematician.
Other than eight months of formal schooling in the cities of Graham and Weatherford, H. Y. Benedict was homeschooled by his mother.
Benedict studied civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin from 1889 to 1892, and completed a master's degree in 1893.
Upon completion of his studies in 1898, Benedict served as interim of mathematics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University in 1899.
Benedict yielded the deanship in 1927 to succeed Walter Marshall William Splawn as university president.