Civilian Life

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 […]

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 […]

After her brother was drafted, Jo-Ellen Iacovino and her family moved to Happy Valley, Tennessee to support the war effort. Although Iacovino and her sister, Sheila Rowan, were too young to participate in the construction of the K-25, gaseous diffusion plant, their older sister, Colleen Black, and their parents worked to support the Manhattan Project. When the […]

After her brother was drafted, Sheila Rowan’s family moved to Happy Valley, Tennessee to support the war effort. Although Rowan and her sister, Jo-Ellen Iacovino, were too young to participate in the construction of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, their older sister, Colleen Black, and their parents worked to support the Manhattan Project. When the […]

Rosen: Well, my name is Louis Rosen. I was born in New York City, not the best part of the city. I’m now almost eighty-five years old. My parents were immigrants from Poland.  They were escaping from the pogroms, which were taking place with the Russian Cossacks coming in and raiding villages, especially where Jews […]

Mary Kalbert: My name is Mary Kalbert and I am in Friday Harbor, Washington, interviewing Gordon Steele on June 16, 2014 for the Atomic Heritage Foundation Manhattan Voices Project. Gordon? Gordon Steele: My name is Gordon, and you want me to spell my name? Kalbert: Please spell your name for me. Steele: Gordon. G-O-R-D-O-N. Steele. […]

[We would like to thank the Rhydymwyn Valley History Society for donating this interview. The above photograph was provided courtesy of the Rhydymwyn Valley History Society.] Myfanwy Pritchard-Roberts: My name is Myfanwy Pritchard-Roberts. Interviewer 1: Okay, okay. Roberts: And, I’m from Caernarfon [Wales]. Interviewer 1: Just leave it— Roberts: And, I worked here during the […]

Kowarski: So born in Leningrad, February, 1907. Father, businessman. Mother had a little career of her own as a singer, but [inaudible]. Father, his business started to be paper, pulp and paper, and then from that he branched off to supplying paper to newspapers and magazines, and from there he branched off into participation in magazines. […]

Mench: I am John Mench and sixty years ago I was a young man with a wife and a baby girl, a good job in industrial deferment, a brand new home and a mortgage. Inside of a week or two, I had in my hand a ticket to a camp, an Army camp, an industrial […]

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. […]