Francis Oley worked on the Manhattan Project for the Kellex Corporation. The son of Polish immigrants, Oley grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
He worked for the Grumman Corporation before joining the M. W. Kellogg Company. He then became part of Kellogg’s Manhattan Project division, the Kellex Corporation. His job eventually required he and his family to move from New York to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he worked at the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. After the war, Oley took another job with Grumman before moving to Texas to work for a petroleum company.
His daughter, Dorothy Ritter, was a young girl at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. An interview with her about life at Oak Ridge and her father’s work can be found here.