Known as Ruth, she was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, on November 25, 1910 to Emma Elizabeth Koppelman and Walter Rider Hedeman, and raised in Baltimore's
Hamilton neighborhood. She graduated from
Eastern High School in
Baltimore in 1928, earned her B.A. from
Goucher College in Baltimore in 1931 and her first master's degree (M.A.) in mathematics from
Duke University in 1936. Hedeman's professional career began as a teacher of elementary math, first at Goucher and then at Eastern High School. But with the start of World War II, she joined the U. S.
Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1942. She received training in atmospheric science and meteorology and then served as
aerological officer at a military facility, the
Naval Air Station in
Klamath Falls, Oregon, and then in
Seattle. She left the service in 1946 having risen to the rank of
Lieutenant, Senior Grade. According to her obituary in the
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,Among Hedeman’s many publications is her 1971 paper, “An Experimental Comprehensive Flare Index and Its Derivation for ‘Major’ Flares, 1955-1969,” co-written with Helen W. Dodson, which introduced the Comprehensive Flare Index (Upper Atmospheric Geophysics, Report UAG-14, World Data Center A, plus its updates UAG-52 in 1975 and UAG-80 in 1981). Other noteworthy publications are “Major Hα Flares in Centers of Activity with very Small or no Spots” (
Solar Physics 13 (1970): 401-419); “Some Patterns in the Development of Centers of Solar Activity, 1962-66” (International Astronomical Union Symposium no. 35, 1968); and “Comments on the Course of Solar Activity during the Declining Phase of Solar Cycle 20, 1970-74” (
Solar Physics 42 (1975): 121-130).
Later years In 1987, she finally retired from the observatory after working there for nearly 40 years and took up residence in
Falls Church, Virginia and later in
Annapolis, Maryland. Always an avid traveler, Hedeman did so extensively for business and pleasure. According to one obituary, "She attended conferences and gave talks at astronomy meetings, and in 1972 fulfilled her dream of completing an around-the-world journey." Apparently that trip did not include an exploration of the Panama Canal, which she regretted, until, "at age 86 and accompanied by a niece and nephew, she made that passage as well". She died at age 95, on January 25, 2006, at her home in
Annapolis, Maryland. == Selected publications ==