Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American physicist of German-Jewish origin, and the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, at the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. Known colloquially as "the father of the atomic bomb", Oppenheimer lamented the weapon's killing power after it was used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, he was a chief advisor to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission and used that position to lobby for international control of atomic energy and to avert the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. After invoking the ire of many politicians and scientists with his outspoken political opinions during the Red Scare, he had his security clearance revoked in a much-publicized and politicized hearing in 1954. Though stripped of his direct political influence, Oppenheimer continued to lecture, write, and work in physics. A decade later, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of rehabilitation.

Final years

After the 1954 Security hearings, Oppenheimer is reported to have been "like a wounded animal", and he started to retreat to a simpler life. In 1957, he purchased a piece of land on Gibney Beach in the island of St John in the Virgin Islands. He built a spartan vacation home on the beach, where he would spend holidays, usually months at a time, with his wife Kitty. Oppenheimer also spent a considerable amount of time sailing with his wife. Upon their death, the property was inherited by their daughter Toni, who then left it to "the people of St. John for a public park and recreation area." Today, the Virgin Islands Government created a Community Center there, which can be rented out. The beach is colloquially known to this day as "Oppenheimer Beach" 1.

Related Topics:
1957 - St John - Virgin Islands - 1

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Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer in 1967. His funeral was attended by many of his scientific, political, and military associates. His ashes were spread over the Virgin Islands.

Related Topics:
Throat cancer - 1967 - Virgin Islands

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