Percival Lowell Percival Lowell Percival Lawrence Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855, in Boston, Massachusetts, the first son of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member of the Brahmin Lowell family, his siblings included the poet Amy Lowell, the educator and legal scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell,
William Lowell Putnam III William Lowell Putnam III William Lowell Putnam III (October 25, 1924 – December 20, 2014) was an alpinist, author and retired broadcasting executive. He was Trustee Emeritus of the Lowell Observatory, a private astronomical research facility. He was the son of politician and businessman Roger Putnam and a member of the once-prominent Lowell family of Massachusetts. Over several decades beginning in the 1940s, Putnam made many first ascents and difficult exploratory expeditions centered in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. After serving as the American Alpine Club guidebook editor for western Canada beginning in 1957 and subsequently in other capacities,