Life in the Secret Cities

Cindy Kelly: My name is Cindy Kelly with the Atomic Heritage Foundation. It is January 8, 2016, and I am in New York City with Peter Lax. My first question for him is to say his name and spell it. Peter Lax: Peter Lax, spelled L-A-X. Kelly: Great, thank you. So I would love to […]

Martin Sherwin: This is Martin Sherwin. I’ll be interviewing Sir Rudolf Peierls at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Today’s date is June 6th, 1979.  You first met [J.Robert] Oppenheimer in Zurich in 1929? Rudolf Peierls: Right, yes. Sherwin: At that time, I think you mentioned you were working with [Wolfgang] Pauli’s group? […]

Cindy Kelly: I am Cindy Kelly. It is October 14, 2015. We’re in in Los Alamos, New Mexico and my first question for the gentleman with me is to tell me your name and spell it. Bill Hudgins: William G. Hudgins. W-I-L-L-I-A-M. G stands for Gordon. Hudgins. H-U-D-G-I-N-S. Kelly: First, could you start by telling […]

Roger Rasmussen: Hi, I am Roger Rasmussen. That is R-A-S-M-U-S-S-E-N. I am the son of Rasmus. That is what it means. It is Danish. My dad came from Denmark. Cindy Kelly: When were you born? Rasmussen: I was born in Mason City, Iowa on November 13, 1920. I refer to that as the Middle Ages. […]

Ted Rockwell: It’s Theodore Rockwell, R – O – C – K – W – E – L – L. And what do you want to know? Cindy Kelly: Okay. Tell us about how you happened to go to the Manhattan Project? Rockwell: Well, they were interviewing at school. I came along interviewing for a […]

Walter Goodman: My name is Walter Goodman and I was born in 1922, which is a very long time ago. I was particularly interested in engineering and in the military from the time I was a young boy. When I did get into the service, I ended up continuing in school, and finished electrical engineering. […]

Jack Keen: My father was an engineering draftsman at Hanford. I was—depending on what the months were—probably three or four years old. Richard Rhodes: When you went there? Keen: Right, when I lived there in one of those big, duplex houses. My mother, father and I lived in those duplexes for a time when I […]

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with Dorothy McKibbin in Santa Fe, July 20, 1979. Dorothy McKibbin: Santa Fe? Sherwin: It sure is, but it’s not going to be my last. I’m enjoying it thoroughly. McKibbin: Great country. Sherwin: It is. It’s just beautiful, and, of course, we’re having such fantastic weather now. If I could put this— McKibbin: The most […]

Robert S. Norris: The first thing we should do is to identify yourself. Andrew Hanson: My name is Andrew J. Hanson, and I’m the son of Alfred O. Hanson, who was at Los Alamos just having finished his PhD, and coming down from Ray Herb’s nuclear physics research group at Wisconsin. He was working for […]

Mary Rockwell: My name is Mary Rockwell. Spell it? M-a-r-y R-o-c-k-w-e-l-l. Cindy Kelly: Very good. What was your maiden name? Rockwell: Compton. Kelly: And how is that spelled? Rockwell: C-o-m-p-t-o-n. Kelly: Okay. Is there a funny story attached with that? Rockwell: Yes. My sister, her husband having been head of the Y-12 Beta process, was […]