National Museum of Nuclear Science & HistoryAnna Mae Gillespie: I was born in Oklahoma City, not Oklahoma City but Caldwell County, Oklahoma. We left Oklahoma when I was about seven years old. I had thirteen brothers and sisters.
Theresa Strottman: That’s a very large family.
Theresa Strottman: As we start, could you briefly tell me when and where you were born and something about your early education and training?
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.
Gordon Knobeloch: Okay, it’s Gordon Knobeloch, G-O-R-D-O-N, and the last name is K-N-O-B-E-L-O-C-H.
Kelly: Great. Okay, why don’t you start with how you got to—
Knobeloch: Okay. Well, everybody who came here had their own particular path and mine wasn’t as spectacular as some of them, but it was interesting to me, and I guess it started with good ol’ Pearl Harbor day.
[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.]
Tell us your name.
Lawrence Denton: I'm Lawrence Denton, later named Larry when I came to Hanford. L-A-R-R-Y, D-E-N-T-O-N.
How did you get to work on the Manhattan Project?
Theresa Strottman: We are speaking with Arno Roensch. We thank you for coming this morning. To start off the interview, I was wondering if you could briefly tell me when and where you were born and something about your early education and training.
Arno Roensch: I was born in Berlin, Germany—1918. We came to this country in 1922. I remember the boat we came on, it was called the S.S. Orbeta; it was a British vessel. It took 21 days to cross the Atlantic.
Theresa Strottman: It’s Saturday March 21, 1992, and it’s approximately 10:20 in the morning. We are speaking with Jerry Roensch. We thank you so much for coming this morning.
Eleanor (Jerry) Roensch: My pleasure.
Strottman: To start off the interview, I wonder if you could briefly tell me when and where you were born and a little something about your early education and training.
Theresa Strottman: It’s Saturday, February 15, 1992, approximately 11:28 AM. We’re interviewing Kay Manley. We really appreciate your coming here today. Briefly tell me when and where you were born and something about your education and training.
Yvonne Delamater: We are interviewing Felix De Paula for the Manhattan Project video. Thanks for coming here to give us an interview. Briefly tell me when and where you were born and something about your education and training.
George Cowan: It's weighted so heavily in favor—not in favor of—but the emphasis on number one Los Alamos, and then Oak Ridge, and then Hanford, as the three secret cities or something. But the fact is the Met Lab at Chicago was enormously important. The Stagg Field reactor was historic in ’42, and its sort of dismissed.
