The Chicago Pile 1 Pioneers
Fifty people were present in a converted squash-racquets court at
the University of Chicago's abandoned Stagg Field on Dec. 2, 1942, when the
first nuclear reactor went critical. To refute the myth that "all the people at
the first reactor died of cancer," Argonne National Laboratory's Office of
Public Affairs is compiling a list of where they are now. The type of cancer
typically associated with this type of external radiation exposure is leukemia.
To the best of our knowledge, no CP-1 pioneer has yet died of leukemia.
If you have an update, information we don't have, or just a
comment, please send us email, telephone
Dave Baurac at 630/252-5584, fax him at 630/252-5274, or write to him at the
Office of Public Affairs, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue,
Argonne, Il 60439.
Here is the information collected so far (last updated Dec. 13,
2007):
- Harold
M. Agnew— Retired, living in California.
- Samuel
K. Allison— Died of heart attack in 1965.
- Herbert
L. Anderson— Died July 16, 1988, of berylliosis.
- Wayne Arnold — Deceased.
- Hugh M. Barton — Nov. 30, 2004, from congestive heart failure.
- Thomas Brill — Died Sept. 28, 1998, in Aurora, Colo., of
multiple myelomas.
- Robert F. Christy — On faculty at the California Institute of
Technology.
- Arthur
H. Compton— Died of heart attack in 1962.
- Enrico
Fermi— Died Nov. 28, 1954, of stomach cancer; Argonne's founding
director, when it was still the University of Chicago's "Argonne
Lab."
- Richard J. Fox — Died April 9, 1996, of a stroke.
- Stewart Fox — Living in the Bahamas.
- Carl. C. Gamertsfelder — Died of a heart attack in 1996.
- Alvin C. Graves — Died July 29, 1965, of a heart attack.
- Crawford Greenwalt — Died of heart attack in 1993.
- David L. Hill — Living in Connecticut.
- Norman Hilberry — Died March 28, 1986, of complications from
influenza.
- William H. Hinch — Died March 26, 2005, in Englewood, Colo., of
complications resulting from a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
- Robert E. Johnson — Living in Illinois.
- W.R. Kanne — Died Oct. 24, 1985, of intestinal cancer.
- August C. Knuth — Living in Illinois.
- Phillip Grant Koontz — Died from a heart attack in 1991 at age
87 in Boulder, Colo.
- Herbert E. Kubitschek — Deceased.
- Harold V. Lichtenberger — Died Dec. 7, 1993, of stomach
cancer.
- George M. Maronde — Died April 18, 1966, of a heart
attack.
- Anthony J. Matz — No information.
- George Miller — Living in California.
- George D. Monk — No information.
- Henry P. Newson — Died in 1978.
- Robert G. Nobles — Died June 12, 2007.
- Warren E. Nyer — Living in Idaho. Spoke to the
World Nuclear University Summer Institute in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on July
22, 2005, about his experience at CP-1.
- Wilcox P. Overbeck — Died in 1981 of arteriosclerosis after
defeating cancer 10 years earlier.
- Howard J. Parsons — Alive and apparently living in California,
where he made a short presentation about CP-1, June 2, 2000, at Tuffree Middle
School, Placentia.
- Gerard S. Pawlicki — Living in Illinois.
- Theodore Petry — Living in Illinois, a retired school teacher
with four children and nine grandchildren.
- David P. Rudolph — Living in West Virginia.
- Leon Sayvetz — Living in Puget Sound, Wash., and New
York.
- Leo Seren — Died Jan. 3, 2002, of heart problems in Evanston,
Illinois.
- Louis
Slotin— Died in radiation accident at Los Alamos, May
30, 1946.
- Frank H. Spedding — Died of heart attack in 1984.
- William J. Sturm — Died July 25, 1999, of Hepatitis C.
- Leo
Szilard— Developed bladder cancer, but died May 30, 1964,
of heart attack.
- Al
Wattenberg—Died June 27, 2007, age 90.
- Richard J. Watts — Living in New Mexico.
- George L. Weil — Died July 1, 1995, at age 87 in Washington,
D.C., from stroke and heart problems.
- Eugene
P. Wigner— Died Jan. 1, 1995, of complications from
Alzheimer's disease.
- Marvin H. Wilkening — Living in New Mexico.
- Volney C. (Bill) Wilson — Retired from General Electric
Research Laboratory. Died of natural causes April 1, 2006,
at age 96 in Wisconsin.
- E.O. Wollan — Died in 1984 of a stroke.
- Leona
Woods (Marshall Libby) — Died of cancer in 1986.
- Walter
H. Zinn— Argonne National Laboratorys first
director died at age 93 on Feb. 14, 2000, of a stroke.
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