John M. Pierce

He was one of the earliest members of the Springfield Telescope Makers and served as its vice president.

When the hobby was new and supplies were hard to come by, Pierce set up a small business to provide kits and parts for amateur astronomers.

[1] In 1933 and 1934 he published a series of 14 articles on telescope making in Hugo Gernsback's Everyday Science and Mechanics called "Hobbygrafs" (or sometimes "Hobbygraphs").

Robert E. Cox, in an obituary for Sky and Telescope magazine in 1958, considered John M. Pierce on a par with Ingalls and Porter, describing him as one of "the big three behind the amateur telescope making movement in America.

He spent most of his life as a teacher; from 1919 to 1956 he was director of the Springfield High School co-operative course, which included training in machine-tool work, cabinet making, sheet-metal work and auto repair.