John Tepe’s Interview
Louisville native John Tepe began working for the DuPont Company in 1939 after he received his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville. In 1942, Tepe was transferred to the University of Chicago where he worked on a wide variety of problems in areas such as synthesis and chemical separation that proved integral to the design and construction of the plants at Hanford. Tepe recounts the remarkable cooperation among top Manhattan Project scientists, many of whom he saw nearly every day in the halls at the University of Chicago. Tepe describes some of the chemical experiments that were conducted in the west stands under Stagg Field and alludes to the famous chain reaction that took place in the doubles squash court under Stagg Field. Tepe explains the enormous scale-up required at Hanford and describes the Manhattan Project’s revolutionary impact on industry. Finally, Tepe acknowledges the link between The Manhattan Project, private corporations (such as DuPont), and academia whose efforts combined to make the development of an atomic bomb successful.