The Biographical Dictionary of America/Coakley, George Washington

COAKLEY, George Washington, educator, was born in St. Bartholomew, W.I., Feb. 22, 1814; son of Henry Coakley. He was graduated from Rutgers college, A.B., in 1836, and studied at the General theological seminary, New York, in the class of 1843. He was professor of mathematics and astronomy in St. James college, Md., 1840-60; professor of mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy in the University of the city of New York, 1860-84, and of mathematics and astronomy, 1884-93. He received the degree of LL.D. from Rutgers in 1856. He was married Sept. 14, 1861, to Isabella Hoe, daughter of Cornelius Godfrey, and made his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was a member of the Brooklyn astronomical society and author of Tidal Theory of the Forms of Comets (1860); and papers on astronomical subjects in the Siderial Messenger, Astronomy and Astro-Physics, and Proceedings of the Astronomical society from 1885 to 1892. He died in Brooklyn. N.Y., Aug. 2, 1893.