Government Official

Eugene Reybold (1884-1961) was a Lieutenant General and Chief of Engineers in the US Army. He was involved in the early stages of the Manhattan Project. Born in Delaware City, Reybold attended Delaware College and graduated in 1903. He was commissioned in the Coast Artillery Corps, and first served in the Philippines. He was stationed […]

James F. Byrnes (1882-1972) was U.S. Secretary of State from 1945-1947 under President Truman.  EARLY YEARS  “Jimmy” Byrnes was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He left school at the age of fourteen to work as a clerk at a law firm. In 1900, when his cousin, Governor Miles B. McSweeney, appointed him to clerk for […]

Clifford Durr was an American civil rights lawyer.  Born into the Alabama aristocracy, Durr became an unlikely champion for oppressed people. Yet he became very sensitive to the concerns of the underprivileged during the Great Depression. During the same period, his liberal politics led him into many of the same circles as Robert Oppenheimer. Durr represented […]

Lewis Strauss (1896-1974) was an American financier and government official who served as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Strauss was born in Charleston, West Virginia. He had hoped to study physics, but his family did not have the money to send him to college. During World War I, Strauss worked under Food Administrator Herbert […]

Bernard Baruch was an American financier and foreign policy adviser to Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt, and Truman.  After becoming attaining great success as an investor, Baruch left Wall Street in 1916 to advise President Woodrow Wilson on issues of foreign policy and national defense. During the Second World War, his close personal friend, President Franklin Roosevelt, […]

Hirohito (1901-1989), known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa, was emperor of Japan during World War II and is Japan’s longest-serving monarch in history.   BACKGROUND Hirohito was born in Tokyo during the Meiji Period to the son of the reigning emperor. His father ascended the throne in 1912. In 1921, Hirohito visited Europe; a first for […]

McMahon worked in the 100 D Area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) was the 32nd President of the United States of America. Under Roosevelt’s tenure as President, the Manhattan Project was set into motion. He had direct responsibility for establishing and funding the project and its forerunners. Before his death in office in 1945, he made decisions that would influence the […]

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) was the administrative political director of the Soviet atomic bomb project and chief of the USSR’s secret police.  Early Years Beria was born in the present day Republic of Georgia on March 29, 1899. In 1919 he graduated from the Baku Polytechnical School for Mechanical Construction. During his time at Baku, […]