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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

George Maronde

Security GuardChicago, IL

Manhattan Project Veteran

George Maronde was a security guard at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Lab. He stood guard outside Stagg Field when Chicago Pile-1 went critical on December 2, 1942.

“For all I knew all those guys were building a little house,” he told a newspaper on the 20th anniversary of the event. “If I’d have known, I’d have run 800 miles north without stopping.”

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