Oak Ridge

Stephane Groueff: Interview with Dr. Clarence Larson—L-A-R-S-O-N—head of the Union Carbide’s operations at Oak Ridge, a chemist. Dr. Larson was connected with the electromagnetic separation process during the war, and he was a personal friend of Dr. Lawrence [Ernest O. Lawrence]. He’s married to the daughter of Dr. Stafford Warren, who was also with the […]

Harold Hoover: My name is Harold E. Hoover, that’s H-O-O-V-E-R, commonly known as Hal, H-A-L. Cindy Kelly: Why don’t you start by telling me how you got into the SED [Special Engineer Detachment]? How you happened to get into the SED, and then what you found when you got to Oak Ridge? Hoover: All right. […]

Stephane Groueff: Start from the beginning and if you can give me in a few words the history of how it started, who actually came into contract, and how?  Leroy Jackson: With respect to the construction of the City of Oak Ridge, Stone & Webster was retained. I believe it is what we classify as […]

[Audio distortion occurs throughout the interview.] Stephane Groueff: Recording interview with Mr. Leon Love at Oak Ridge July 15, 1963. Mr. Love works with Y-12. Would you mind repeating sort of some of the characteristics of Y-12, some of the figures? For instance, how many buildings? How many magnets? How many Alpha [calutrons] and Beta […]

Dorothy Wilkinson: My name is Dorothy Wilkinson, D-o-r-o-t-h-y W-i-l-k-i-n-s-o-n. Cindy Kelly: Okay, if you could just tell a little bit about where you were born and how you happened to come Oak Ridge. Wilkinson: I was born in west Tennessee, which is what I count my home. I came right out of high school when I graduated because […]

Paul Wilkinson: My name is Paul Wilkinson, spelled P-a-u-l W-i-l-k-i-n-s-o-n. Cindy Kelly: Great, and we will start the same way, by your telling us where you are from and how you ended up at Oak Ridge. Wilkinson: I am from New Jersey. I graduated from Williams College in November of ’43. Eastman Kodak was the […]

Interviewer 1: Why did your family come to Oak Ridge? When did that happen? Rowan: Well, we actually came to Oak Ridge in 1945. We left Nashville in early 1945. Because there was no housing available onsite in Oak Ridge, we had to stay in South Harriman, which is about twenty miles away. In the […]

Seth Wheatley: My name is Seth Wheatley, and it’s S-E-T-H W-H-E-A-T-L-E-Y. Kelly: Okay. Now, can we start with your telling us where you’re from and how you happened to get involved in the Manhattan Project? Wheatley: Well, I was at Purdue University. I got married in my junior year, and I tried to join the […]

Marge Shipley: As for housing, men would come too, because they would feel that they would get sent for their wives. Shirely Tawse: What would you do then, take it up with the Tennessee Eastman? Shipley: I would take it up with Eastman and do what I could. I’d quiet them down if I could. […]

Shirley Tawse: Pat, do you live here now too? Patricia Hansard: Uh-huh. Tawse: I’d like to ask you how you first became interested. How you happened to go to Oak Ridge? You said before it was for the money. Hansard: Uh-huh. Tawse: Tell me. I would just like to visualize it as it happened to […]