National Museum of Nuclear Science & HistoryMarge 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. If I saw no reason for their squawks and thought I couldn’t do any better, I’d try to be as diplomatic as I could. I never was cross with anyone.
Ray Stein: Okay. Ray Stein, S-T-E-I-N. I came from Erie, Pennsylvania originally. Are we started now?
Cindy Kelly: Yes, we started. Tell me your story.
Stein: Okay. I had originally tried to join the Navy. I was at Penn State at the time. I tried to join the Navy, which—they rejected me—didn’t have enough teeth, they told me.
[Interviewed by Cindy Kelly and Tom Zannes.]
Tell us your name.
Harry Kamack: I'm Harry Kamack. K-A-M-A-C-K.
Tell us where you're from.
Anne McKusick: That’s A-N-N-E, M-C capital K-U-S-I-C-K.
Cindy Kelly: Okay Anne, can you tell us where you were born and a little bit about—
William J. Wilcox, Jr.: My name is Bill Wilcox. Oak Ridge, Tennessee resident for sixty-three years. Ever since—pretty much since the beginning of Oak Ridge. Can’t imagine a better calling, a better career, a better place to live, better people to work for, better people to work with, or to be associated with. Very important contribution to our country that I was privileged to have a very tiny, small part of. It was great.
Lucille Whitman: I am Lucille Whitman, L-U-C-I-L-L-E W-H-I-T-M-A-N.
Kelly: Great. And how did you happen to—where are you from and how did you happen to get—
Robert Ellingson: My name is Robert Ellingson, and it’s spelled E-L-L-I-N-G-S-O-N.
Kelly: Great. Now if you could just tell us where you’re from, and how you happened to end up in the Manhattan Project.
Ellingson: I am from a little town in Idaho, and Idaho is west of Wyoming if you’re not familiar with the geography of the country. Most people look quizzical and say, “Iowa, that’s north of here, isn’t it?” But this is the one in the West.
