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 Laboratory’s first director died at age 93 on Feb. 14, 2000, of a stroke.