Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Celia Szapka Klemski was working as a secretary for the State Department in Washington, DC when she was transferred to Manhattan to work on the Manhattan Project in 1942. Klemski worked as a secretary at the first headquarters of the Manhattan Engineer District in Madison Square on Fifth Avenue. After only nine months, she was transferred to Oak Ridge, where she settled down and married another Manhattan Project worker. Klemski worked with General Leslie Groves, who told her to call him “GG.”

Klemski was featured in Denise Kiernan’s The Girls of Atomic City.

Celia Szapka Klemski's Timeline
1919 May 17th Born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
1938 Moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a secretary for the State Department.
1942 Arrived in Manhattan, New York to work for the Manhattan Project as a secretary at Project headquarters on Fifth Avenue.
1943 Transferred to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Related Profiles

Reuben McCord

Oak Ridge, TN

Reuben McCord was a chemist who worked at several Manhattan Project sites. After graduating from Erskine College in South Carolina, he was recruited to work at the University of Chicago Metallurgical laboratory.

Eunice C. Hite

Oak Ridge, TN

Eunice Hite worked for the United States Engineer District Office.

J. J. Gallagher

X-10 Graphite Reactor

J. J. Gallagher worked for Clinton Laboratories at the X-10 Reactor.

Rodolfo Martinez

Los Alamos, NM