Atomic Heritage Foundation

Alexandra Levy: All right, we’re here on December 28, 2012 with Lawrence Litz. First please say your name and spell it. Lawrence Litz: L-A-W – it’s Lawrence Litz, L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E, L-I-T-Z. Levy: So what was it like working in the war on the Manhattan Project? Litz: It was very exciting and I felt that I was […]

Harris Harold Levee: My name is Harris Harold Levee, L-e-v-e-e. My birthdate is August 9, 1919. I grew up in Sheepshead Bay doing the—playing a lot of sports, and did go to high school at Brooklyn Technical High School, where I studied to be an engineer. And from Brooklyn Tech, I went to a school called […]

Justin Piel: Hi, I am Justin Piel and I am in Palm Harbor, Florida interviewing Dr. Lawrence Litz for a school biography project. Lawrence Litz: Good afternoon. I am Dr. Litz. I am glad to be able to discuss some of the work that I did many, many years ago on the atomic energy program. […]

Benjamin Bederson: I’m Benjamin Bederson. Cindy Kelly: Can you spell it? Bederson: B-E-D-E-R-S-O-N. Sometimes it’s called “Bederson.” I say Bederson.  Kelly: And what was your birth date? Bederson: I was born November 15, 1921. I’m about to have my 90th birthday next month. Kelly: You are phenomenal. This man looks like he’s sixty-five. Bederson: I like to say I’m on a plateau. But you know what a […]

William J. Wilcox, Jr.: My name is Bill Wilcox. Oak Ridge, Tennessee resident for sixty-three years. Ever since—pretty much since the beginning of Oak Ridge. Can’t imagine a better calling, a better career, a better place to live, better people to work for, better people to work with, or to be associated with. Very important […]

Gordon Knobeloch: Okay, it’s Gordon Knobeloch, G-O-R-D-O-N, and the last name is K-N-O-B-E-L-O-C-H. Kelly: Great. Okay, why don’t you start with how you got to— Knobeloch: Okay. Well, everybody who came here had their own particular path and mine wasn’t as spectacular as some of them, but it was interesting to me, and I guess […]

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.] Tell us your name. Lawrence Denton: I’m Lawrence Denton, later named Larry when I came to Hanford. L-A-R-R-Y, D-E-N-T-O-N. How did you get to work on the Manhattan Project? Denton: I got to Hanford via my father. I was living in northern Idaho and working in a lumber […]

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly, Tom Zannes, and Thomas E. Marceau.] Veronica Taylor: I’m Veronica Taylor, one of the elders for the Nez Perce tribe and I work in the environmental restoration management program for the Nez Perce. One they call the community liaison. Tell me what the Columbia River means to your tribe? Taylor: Well, the […]

Jay Wechsler: Well, my mother was visiting her folks in New York when she decided that it was time, and I was the first child, and I guess she was a little surprised. So I was born in New York even though we didn’t live there. And as soon as we were able we were […]

George Cowan: It’s weighted so heavily in favor—not in favor of—but the emphasis on number one Los Alamos, and then Oak Ridge, and then Hanford, as the three secret cities or something. But the fact is the Met Lab at Chicago was enormously important. The Stagg Field reactor was historic in ’42, and its sort of […]