Roger Putnam which was under-utilized due to poor viewing conditions and low elevation. Putnam led the negotiations which permanently moved the telescope to Lowell Observatory's Anderson Mesa site (in Arizona). The telescope was operated by Lowell Observatory in partnership with the Ohio State University and Ohio Wesleyan, and purchased by Lowell in 1998. Putnam brought Perkins's telescope to the Arizona observatory as well. The Observatory's existing telescope had cracked in 1964 while staff attempted to update its optical system. The Perkins mirror did not stay at Lowell for long, returning to Perkins' control in 1969. The Lowell Observatory retained the mount, however.
William Lowell Putnam become trustee. After Gus's death, William's second son, Roger, became trustee. In 1927, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam established the William Lowell Putnam Intercollegiate Memorial Fund in order to begin a college-level mathematics competition, the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. This contest, which continues to this day, began in 1935 under the direction of the Mathematical Association of America. Putnam's grandson by the same name, William Lowell Putnam, born 1924, was a geologist, businessman, and climber, and served as the sole trustee of Lowell observatory from 1987-2013. William Lowell Putnam William Lowell Putnam II (November 22, 1861 – June 1923) (more commonly