Grote Reber (born 1911) was a radio engineer who became interested in radio astronomy as a hobby. He built the first radio telescope in the backyard of his home and, for a decade, he was the only radio astronomer in the United States. Reber recorded radio signals at different wavelengths and created the first radio map of the universe.

Grote Reber was born on December 22, 1911 in Wheaton, Illinois, about 25 miles west of Chicago. His mother, Harriet Grote, was a grade school teacher who interested Reber in astronomy with a book by one of her former students, Edwin P. Hubble. As a child, Reber was interested in radio as a hobby. By the time he was 15 years old he had built his first transmitter receiver and could communicate with other "ham" radio amateurs around the world.

In 1933 Reber graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science...