William Edward Tewes was born Jersey City, New Jersey on October 10th, 1922. Following Pearl Harbor, Tewes was drafted and joined the Special Engineer Detachment. He went to work for the S.A.M. Laboratory at Columbia University. He worked under Dr. Francis Slack, focusing on helium-CO2 separation characterizing barriers. He also worked with Don Trauger on the barrier material for the gaseous diffusion process in the basement of lab and in the Nash Garage Building. In July 1945, he was transferred to Oak Ridge. He worked on the leak testing operation at K-25.
William E. Tewes
ChemistColumbia University
K-25 PlantManhattan, NYOak Ridge, TN
Manhattan Project VeteranMilitary VeteranScientistSpecial Engineer Detachment
Listen to William E. Tewes’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project
William E. Tewes’s Timeline
1922 Oct 10th Born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
19431944 Joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University.
19441945 Transferred to the Nash Garage Building, where he continued to work on developing a suitable barrier for the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge.