Description:

Groves Leslie

University of Chicago and Nobel Winner Invites Groves to  Anniversary of First Nuclear Chain Reaction: “Without you as the leader of the Manhattan District Corps of Engineers Project, the occasion will not be complete”

 

 

 

GEORGE BEADLE, Autograph Letter Signed, to Leslie R. Groves Jr., November 22, 1967. 1 p., 8.5" x 11". Very good.

 

Excerpts

“I am sorry indeed to learn from your note of Nov. 13 that you are unable to attend the events celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the First Nuclear Chain Reaction, Dec 1 & 2. Without you as the leader of the Manhattan District Corps of Engineers Project, the occasion will not be complete. It is therefore my personal hope—shared by all the others I know—that you will be able to alter your plans and be with us.”

 

“I know many people you were associated with during those decisive years, will be greatly disappointed if you are not present. So please try, won’t you?”

 

Historical Background

On December 2, 1942, forty-two scientists and technicians created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago. On December 2-3, 1967, approximately 250 scientists and other dignitaries, including Manhattan Project director General Leslie R. Groves Jr., convened at the University of Chicago to commemorate the anniversary. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented a speech by satellite from Washington in which he offered to open all U.S. nuclear facilities, except those used for military weapons, for international inspection in an attempt to reduce the risk of a nuclear war.

 

The festivities also included the unveiling of the sculpture “Nuclear Energy” by British sculptor Henry Moore on the University of Chicago campus.

 

 

George Beadle (1903-1989) was born in Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1926. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1931 for research on corn. He worked at the California Institute of Technology from 1931 to 1936, where he continued research on corn. After teaching genetics at Harvard University and biology and genetics at Stanford University, he returned in 1946 to the California Institute of Technology, where he remained until 1961. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward Tatum in 1958 for discovering the role of genes in regulating biochemical events within cells. Beadle served as president of the University of Chicago from 1961 to 1968. He also served as the Chairman of the Committee on Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation for the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Leslie R. Groves Jr. (1896-1970) was a United States Army General with the Corps of Engineers who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Born in New York to a Protestant pastor who became an army chaplain, Groves graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1918 in a course shortened because of World War I. He entered the Corps of Engineers and gained promotions to major by 1940. In 1941, he was charged with overseeing the construction of the Pentagon, the largest office building in the world, with more than five million square feet. Disappointed that he had not received a combat assignment, Groves instead took charge of the Manhattan Project, designed to develop an atomic bomb. He continued nominally to supervise the Pentagon project to avoid suspicion, gained promotion to brigadier general, and began his work in September 1942. The project headquarters was initially in the War Department building in Washington, but in August 1943, moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer selected the site in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for a laboratory, and Groves pushed successfully for Oppenheimer to be placed in charge. Groves was in charge of obtaining critical uranium ores internationally and collecting military intelligence on Axis atomic research. Promoted to major general in March 1944, Groves received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work on the Manhattan Project after the war. In 1947, Groves became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. He received a promotion to lieutenant general in January 1948, just days before meeting with Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower, who reviewed a long list of complaints against Groves. Assured that he would not become Chief of Engineers, Groves retired in February 1948. From 1948 to 1961, he was a vice president of Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm. After retirement, he served as president of the West Point alumni association and wrote a book on the Manhattan Project, published in 1962.

 

 

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