William Weber Coblentz was the son of David Coblentz and Catherine Good. His mother died when he was only three. His father remarried Amelia Shillinger, daughter of Jacob and Mary Shillinger. William lived on farms throughout his childhood and adolescence in Columbiana County, Ohio. He did not finish high school until he was 22 years old. He went to the Case School of Aplied Science (Case Western Reserve University) in the fall of 1896. He received his BS degree in physics in June 1900. He earned his MS (1901)l and PhD (1903) from Cornell Univeristy in Ithaca, NY. He stayed working as a Research Fellow for two years. In 1905 he accepted a position with the National Bureau of Standards (National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST) in Washington D.C.(Wikipedia)

On 10 Jun 1924 he married Catherine E. Cate in Washington D.C. They had two children who died as infants: Catharine Joan (1927-1928) and David William (1929-1929). Catharine (Cate) Coblentz was the author of children's books.

OBITUARY: The New York Times 19 Sep 1962
Washington, Sept. 18
"Dr. William Weber Coblentz, a physiciast who pioneered in the measurement of heat and light, died Saturday in George Washington Hospital after a long illness. He was 88 years old.

Dr. Coblentz did most of his research at the National Bureau of Standards. He founded the Bureau's radiometry section in 1905 and was chief of the section until his retirement in 1945. Since then, he had been a consultant to the Bureau, the American Medical Association and other organizations.

He wrote many scientific papers, and must of his work was published by the Bureau. One study that aroused wide interest was titled "Temperature Estimates of the Planet Mars" and published in 1925. It led to imaginative speculation by popular writers and illustrators about the possibility of men on Mars..."

William Weber Coblentz was an inventor. He received 11 patents, his first for a threshing machine when he was only 11.