Corporate Involvement in the Manhattan Project

Stephane Groueff: Recording of interview with Dr. Lauchlin Currie, C-U-R-R-I-E; New York, May 13, 1965. Dr. Lauchlin Currie: When the war broke out I was superintendent of the Bakelite Plant at Bound Brook, New Jersey. As a reserve officer then, I got reassigned to work on the proximity fuse program. Groueff: You were in uniform? […]

Stephane Groueff: Interview with Mr. P. C. Keith, K-E-I-T-H, former head of Kellex Company during the war. Percival Keith: So I decided I would accept the job of trying to build this plant at Oak Ridge. Groves came up from Washington, and he and I went out to dinner. It was a French restaurant, Miriliton. […]

Cindy Kelly: We are with Richard Rhodes at Atomic Heritage Foundation’s studio in Washington, D.C. Can you start by telling us your name? Richard Rhodes: I’m Richard Rhodes. Kelly: Can you spell that, please? Rhodes: Yes, R-H-O-D-E-S. Kelly: And Richard spelled the usual way? Rhodes: Yes. Kelly: We are trying to gather various pieces of […]

Stephane Groueff: Where did you come from? Probably we’ll start chronologically and then— Dr. Samuel K. Allison: I was born here in Chicago, just half a kilometer from where we’re sitting at this moment. I went to school at the public schools in the city of Chicago and entered the University of Chicago in 1917. […]

Charney: Where shall I start? Groueff: Tell me how you got involved in the whole project and your first meeting with all those people and where you came from. Start from the beginning.  Charney: I had actually just graduated from college and I was prepared to go into the Army or to look for a […]

S. L. Sanger: This is Hefner on June 11, 1986, interviewed at his residence in Richland. Jack Hefner: The plant at Oak Ridge was operating to make enough samples of plutonium, so they could learn how to separate here at Hanford. Very few people said a great deal about that and knew much about it. […]

[Many thanks to Bill Curtis for recording and donating this interview to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Mary Lou Curtis: When I got out of college, it was 1932 and a big Depression was on. Miami University, where I graduated from, only placed one teacher that year because jobs were so hard to find. I didn’t […]

[Many thanks to Bill Curtis for recording and donating this interview to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Gustave Alfred Essig: My name is Gustave Alfred Essig. Everybody calls me Gus. I started working on this particular project in May of 1946 after being discharged from the Army as a Captain during the World War II. I […]

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.] K.W. Greager: Name is K.W. Greager, I go by Wally. Greager is spelled G-R-E-A-G-E-R, slightly different than the earlier Greager. Tell us about when you started with Hanford. Greager: I started working at Hanford after college in late 1951 on a rotational training program. I spent four years […]

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.] Hank Kosmata: My name is Hank Kosmata, K-O-S-M-A-T-A. I was a chemical engineer student at the University of Utah. In our senior year, at that time the American Society of Chemical Engineers had what they called a “senior problem” that they gave to all the chemical engineering students […]