Jane Greer Puckett was a mathematician-statistician in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project.
Early Years
Puckett was born on May 24, 1922 in Paris, Tennessee. After attending Judson College in Alabama, Puckett transferred to the University of Tennessee in 1942. Although she planned to study for an engineering degree, she was unable to enroll in the engineering program on account of her gender. As a result, in August of 1943, she became the first person at the University of Tennessee to graduate with a degree in business statistics.
The Manhattan Project
Upon graduation, Puckett was offered a job as a mathematician-statistician at the Y-12 laboratories in Oak Ridge. She supervised up to 40 clerks at any given time in the Y-12 facility. Her staff obtained data from the “calutron girls”, Puckett compiled the data, and her staff calculated the percentage of uranium-235 obtained during the isotope separation process.
On her first day at Oak Ridge, Puckett met her future husband, James Beverly Puckett, whom she married in 1947.
After the War
After the war, Puckett remained in Oak Ridge and continued to use her statistics and mathematics experience to work with Dr. William K. Ergen at the X-10 Graphite Reactor, which helped to develop peacetime uses for atomic energy.
In 1952, Puckett and her husband moved to Tullahoma, Tennessee and raised three children. Puckett spent the rest of her life working as a volunteer administrator for the Amateur Athletics Union (AAU). She and her husband were inducted into the Tennessee Swimming Hall of Fame in 1986, and she was ultimately inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
Puckett passed away on April 22, 2016.