Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Happy Birthday to Bill Wilcox!

Category:
Bill and his wife, Jeanie

In honor of William J. Wilcox Jr.’s 90th birthday, the Atomic Heritage Foundation is pleased to announce a new oral history on the "Voices of the Manhattan Project" website. In this newly released interview, Wilcox discusses his extensive career at Oak Ridge and sheds personal insight on the history of the Manhattan Project.

Throughout the interview, Wilcox’s passion and enthusiasm for preserving the history of the Manhattan Project are on full display. He states right at the beginning that he could not “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.”  Wilcox felt “privileged to have a very tiny, small part of” such an important achievement in this county’s history.

However, Wilcox’s involvement in the Manhattan project was more than small. He became involved right after graduating from Washington and Lee University in 1943 when he took a job with Tennessee Eastman to work on a "Secret, secret, secret!" project. Not long after, Wilcox found himself working with uranium at Oak Ridge.

The project was a closely guarded secret. In the interview, Wilcox recalls the stern warning he received to never say the word uranium. Under threat of prosecution and imprisonment, Wilcox referred to uranium by its codename “Tuballoy.”

Wilcox also explores the challenges of the uranium research at Oak Ridge, saying: “We used code names for the whole thing. We worked all summer long, developing, understanding uranium chemistry. There were no textbooks. You couldn’t call in a consultant who knew all about uranium. We really learned uranium chemistry from the ground up.”

Wilcox’s work went on for some time. Before retiring as Technical Director for Union Carbide Nuclear Division, Wilcox had spent five years at Y-12 and twenty years at K-25. Even after retirement, Wilcox continues his involvement in the Manhattan Project.

Today Wilcox is well-known for his efforts to preserve the history of the Manhattan Project. The author of several books on Oak Ridge and a founder of the Oak Ridge Heritage & Preservation Association, Wilcox is also the Official Historian of the City of Oak Ridge. To this day, Wilcox and his wife Jeanie still live in their World War II F house on New York Avenue in Oak Ridge.

Wilcox’s career at Oak Ridge and passion for preserving the history of the Manhattan Project are truly inspirational. The Atomic Heritage Foundation is pleased to be able to share Wilcox’s fascinating story on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

We send our warmest wishes to Bill on his birthday!