Social Life

Jean Bacher: Ruth Valentine said, “I shall take Ruth [Tolman]’s desk.” She always saved letters. She had marvelous long letters from Robert, you know, especially at the time of the hearings. I knew they were just terribly close and shared a great deal. On the drawer of the desk, she’d said, “Destroy these.” Martin Sherwin: […]

Martin Sherwin: You mentioned a point that others have mentioned that intrigue me: [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s summer in Corsica. You said that Oppenheimer had once told you that reading [Marcel] Proust’s Memory of Things Past was one of the great experiences of his life. Haakon Chevalier: Yes. Sherwin: I have two questions about that. One, could you elaborate on that? […]

Martin Sherwin: How much were the dues [to the Communist Party]? David Hawkins: God, I don’t remember. Not very much, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford them. Sherwin: Two bucks, five bucks? Hawkins: Yeah, something like that. Sherwin: A month? Hawkins: A month, yeah. I really honestly don’t remember. Maybe five bucks a […]

Alexandra Levy: We are here on June 13th in New Jersey with Jack Widowsky. This is Alex Levy with the Atomic Heritage Foundation. My first question for you, Jack, is to please say your name and to spell it. Jack Widowsky: My name is Jack Widowsky. J-A-C-K, which is easy, but the last name is […]

Stanislaus Ulam: You know, after forty-five years in this country, my accent is still very hard. Martin Sherwin: That’s all right. I still have a Brooklyn accent. Ulam:  Oh, you do? Sherwin: I left Brooklyn twenty years ago. I think even though I do know a lot of the answers to some of the questions […]

Martin Sherwin: You must have met the Oppenheimers when Murph [her husband, Marvin Goldberger] met them? Mildred Goldberger: No. Sherwin: No? Goldberger: No, Murph met [J. Robert] Oppenheimer quite early on, I think. Not during the war. But he was an early invitee to the Rochester Conferences. I am sure Oppenheimer was there. In any […]

Martin Sherwin: Today is July 31, 1979. This is an interview with Verna Hobson in New Gloucester, Maine. I think the best way to proceed is probably to start with when you first met [J. Robert] Oppenheimer and how you got the job. Verna Hobson: Okay. We were living in Princeton. My husband commuted to […]

Martin Sherwin: The work must have been sort of very frustrating for a while, before that [Stanislaus] Ulam-[Edward] Teller breakthrough [on the hydrogen bomb]. Ed Hammel: Well, sure. There was—  Sherwin: What were you doing at that time? Hammel: At that point, I continued with having this group in charge of properties of plutonium. But one […]

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. It is Sunday, May 15, 2016, and I’m in Houston, Texas. I’m here to interview Mack Newsom. My first question for you is to say your formal name and spell it. Mack Newsom: My full name is Mack Newsom, M-A-C-K. Well, originally it was Victor McKee, but they call me […]

Martin Sherwin: Martin Sherwin, I am about to interview Dr. Hempelmann at Strong Memorial Hospital. You know, simply from all of the Los Alamos records, but who told me you were at Strong? That was, I think, Dorothy McKibbin. Louis Hempelmann:  Oh yeah. Sherwin: No, she confirmed it. She said you were coming out to […]