Carroll “Red” Gordon (1919-2008) was a machinist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.
Gordon was born in Topeka, Kansas on May 15, 1919. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri, and then moved out to California. He initially worked with the cyclotrons at Berkeley before going to Los Alamos to work as a machinist.
The Gordons were neighbors of Enrico Fermi. Lydia Martinez, their babysitter, recalled that Fermi came over to borrow their alarm clock around the time of the Trinity test.
On October 16, 1945, Gordon attended the Army-Navy “E” ceremony that celebrated the success of the Manhattan Project. As the representative of the machinists, Gordon received the Army-Navy “E” Production Award, a service award for contributions to the war effort.
After the war, Gordon worked for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory as a manufacturing engineer. He retired in 1974.
Gordon died on November 27, 2008 in Mullica Hill, New Jersey at the age of 89.