| Sources |
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 5 Sep 2013.
Oak Ridge historian, town ambassador, dies at 90
Mr. Wilcox was chemist during WWII
[Editor’s note: Eugenia ‘Jeanie’ Wilcox, wife of Bill Wilcox, subject of this article, is a native of Newport, daughter of the late Hugh and Ina Mae Holder. She has several relatives still living in this area.]
Oak Ridge historian Bill Wilcox shows his Manhattan Project identity card on Monday, June 14, 2010, at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Wilcox was visiting the Pilot Plant, the first structure built during the World War II Manhattan Project.
By Frank Munger
mungerf@knoxnews.com
OAK RIDGE—Oak Ridge historian Bill Wilcox, who came to Oak Ridge as a chemist during the World War II Manhattan Project and over the decades became the town’s greatest ambassador, died Monday night. He was 90 years old.
Mr. Wilcox was known for his bow ties, entertaining stories and unparalleled knowledge of Oak Ridge history, which he lived and studied.
According to friends, Mr. Wilcox was hospitalized about three weeks ago and recently had been transferred to the National Health Care facility in Oak Ridge. He suffered from congestive heart failure.
“We’ve lost an icon,” said Ray Smith, a friend and fellow historian. “He has devoted the major portion of his retired life to preserving Oak Ridge history and especially focused on K-25 in recent years. He thought the world of Oak Ridge.”
Gordon Fee, retired president of Lockheed Martin Energy Systems and former manager of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, was a longtime friend.
Fee said Mr. Wilcox hired him in 1956 and served as his mentor, personally and professionally.
“He took over where my father left off,” Fee said. “Every major decision in my career, he was an integral part of.”
Fee said Mr. Wilcox was passionate about everything that interested him-his family and friends, his church, and, of course, history.
He was the author of several books, including a history of Y-12, and many papers about the Manhattan Project, life in wartime Oak Ridge, and the work conducted at the government’s Oak Ridge facilities. Even in his final few days, Mr. Wilcox worked to finish a couple of papers and a revised book about the K-25 uranium-enrichment plant.
Mr. Wilcox, a native of Allentown, Pa., began his work as a junior chemist at Y-12 in 1943, but spent much of his career at K-25. He devoted enormous time and energy over the past decade trying to preserve the history of K-25, which produced a stockpile of enriched uranium for the nation’s Cold War nuclear arsenal.
He and other preservationists fought to save at least a part of the milelong, U-shaped K-25 building-the world’s largest building at the time of its construction-for future generations. In the end, the Department of Energy determined the building was too deteriorated to save, but Mr. Wilcox played an important role in negotiating a compromise agreement with DOE to showcase equipment from K-25, preserve its footprint, and create a visitors center that tells the story of the early nuclear work.
Fee said the community owes it to Mr. Wilcox to make sure all those commitments are carried out.
Department of Energy Manager Larry Kelly said, “He made us all more proud to work here, and he helped a new generation understand Oak Ridge’s role and contributions on a national and global scale.”
As word circulated of his death, there was an outpouring of praise for Mr. Wilcox’s contributions to the community.
Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan said Mr. Wilcox connected the generations and built relationships through stories about Oak Ridge and its rich history, beginning with the wartime work on the first atomic bombs.
“He is truly one of Oak Ridge’s most distinguished citizens and has enriched our community in countless ways,” Beehan said.
Bill Bibb, a retired Department of Energy executive, said Mr. Wilcox was an essential part of Citizens for National Security, a group formed in the late 1990s to convince federal authorities of Y-12’s unique capabilities. At the time, there was a proposal circulating to move some of the Oak Ridge plant’s work to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
“We have lost a cornerstone of the nuclear industry as far as I’m concerned, at least the weapons side of it,” Bibb said Tuesday from his home in South Carolina. “He was the rock we ran on. I’m not sure the people of Oak Ridge ever fully realized what a little pearl he was.”
Mr. Wilcox was a “walking encyclopedia” on the technical aspects of the production operations in Oak Ridge, Bibb said.
He is survived by his wife Jeanie and three children.
A memorial service is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 212 North Tulane Ave., in Oak Ridge, followed by a 12:30 p.m. community reception in the lobby of Pollard Auditorium on the campus of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
- [S142] Newspaper Article, Oak Ridge Today (TN), 3 Sep 2013.
Bill Wilcox, passionate advocate for preserving Oak Ridge’s history, dies at 90
By John Huotari
Bill Wilcox and Clifton Truman Daniel
Wearing his trademark bow tie, Bill Wilcox, left, is pictured at the New Hope Center earlier this year with Clifton Truman Daniel, oldest grandson of former U.S. President Harry S. Truman. (Photos by D. Ray Smith)
Bill Wilcox, a passionate advocate for preserving Oak Ridge’s history who was known for his bow ties and captivating storytelling, died Monday evening. He was 90.
Wilcox died at NHC, longtime friend Gordon Fee said. He had been moved there from Methodist Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized for almost three weeks with heart issues and shortness of breath, Fee said.
“We’ve lost a person who had more knowledge of our history than anyone else I’ve ever known,” said friend D. Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian and newspaper columnist.
Wilcox was a chemist who started working at Y-12 during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic bombs.
Bill Wilcox 90th Birthday Party
Oak Ridge City Historian Bill Wilcox, a longtime advocate for preserving the city’s history, including parts of its federal facilities, at his 90th birthday party this spring.
He went on to become a technical director for Y-12 and K-25, a former uranium-enriching site now known as Heritage Center. Wilcox, who had moved to Oak Ridge from Rochester, N.Y., during the war, had worked at both sites. He oversaw development activities at both plants for many years, and he retired as a special assistant to the president of the contractor running the Oak Ridge sites and others, Fee said.
Wilcox’s passion for preserving Oak Ridge’s history had a particular emphasis on the production plants.
“He was the undisputed leader of trying to save K-25,” said Fee, retired president of Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, which used to operate all three Oak Ridge plants—K-25, Y-12, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory—as well as sites in Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio.
Among other things, Wilcox worked to save the North Tower of the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building, once the world’s largest under one roof. But that proposal became impractical because of the high cost and the deteriorated condition of the building, so Wilcox and others worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to come up with an alternative. A plan to build an exhibit hall at K-25 is really due to Wilcox’s leadership, said Fee, who was hired by Wilcox at K-25 in 1956. (Wilcox was then head of the physics department of the Gaseous Diffusion Plant at K-25, and Fee was hired as a junior physicist.)
But Wilcox also helped in other ways, including with the installation of historical monuments in front of the Oak Ridge Municipal Building; in the fight to preserve the Alexander Inn, which was formerly known as the Guest House; and by serving as a guide on public bus tours of the K-25 site.
Bill and Jeanie Wilcox
Bill and his wife Jeanie Wilcox, who also wore a bow tie for the celebration, at his 90th birthday party at the American Museum of Science and Energy in April.
History was a passion until the end. In March, Wilcox, who was named the city historian several years ago, discussed the last eight days of World War II. This week, Fee said, Wilcox was working on history papers for the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. And business executive and former Oak Ridge Mayor David Bradshaw, who often worked on historical issues with Wilcox, including on the K-25 agreement, said Wilcox had been working on a technical history of K-25.
“Bill had a particular love of K-25,” Bradshaw said.
Friends said Wilcox had had one heart attack years ago and another in February 2012, and his body succumbed to congestive heart failure. But Smith said Wilcox had a “mind like a steel trap to the end” and had expressed his appreciation for the recent efforts of historic preservationists to recognize the former Wheat community in west Oak Ridge. Wilcox was still thinking about K-25, Smith said.
“He put an enormous effort in the last few years of his life into preserving the history of K-25, among other things,” Smith said.
Friends said Wilcox, who has three children and a wife Jeanie, was a unique man who will be hard to replace.
“We’ve sure lost a great resource for the history of Oak Ridge,” Smith said.
“When an icon passes, it really leaves a hole in the community that you can’t really fill,” Bradshaw said.
“He was an iconic figure for the whole community in a number of ways,” Fee said, pointing out Wilcox’s passion for history, his church, and his family. “One of the challenges for the community and all of us is to see that his legacy is carried forward and brought to fruition.”
That legacy includes advocacy of heritage tourism as a possible economic pillar for Oak Ridge, Fee said.
A funeral date for Wilcox had not been set as of Tuesday morning.
- [S142] Newspaper Article, The OakRidger (TN), 4 Sep 2013.
William Jenkins Wilcox Jr., 90, Oak Ridge pioneer and longtime resident, died Monday, Sept. 2, 2013, at NHC Healthcare of Oak Ridge.
The son of attorney William J. Wilcox Sr. and Kitty Rogers Wilcox, Bill was born Jan. 26, 1923, in Harrisburg, Pa. He grew up in Allentown, Pa. He attended Allentown High School and graduated with honors from Washington & Lee University in 1943 with a major in chemistry. He joined the Manhattan Project in May 1943, worked that summer on uranium purification processes for Tennessee Eastman Corp. in Rochester, N.Y. He moved to Oak Ridge in October 1943 when Building 9203 at the Y-12 Plant was completed. He was Badge No. 254.
During the early war years and until the end of World War II, Bill was in charge of Beta chemistry as well as the Special Operations Lab and then served in the Analytical Chemistry Division, setting up the statistical quality control program — the first at Y-12.
From there, his long distinguished career included that of research chemist, technical assistant, physics department head and division director for gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge at K-25. For 12 years, Bill was the technical director for Union Carbide's Nuclear Division in charge of the R&D and technical service organizations at both the K-25 and Y-12 plants.
Following a heart attack in Switzerland in 1980, he served as technical assistant to Presidents Roger F. Hibbs, Ken Jarmolow and Clyde C. Hopkins until retiring in 1986.
In 1983, he headed the independent Mercury Task Force investigating the use of mercury during the lithium separation years of 1955-1962 and its impacts on workers and the environment. During these years, he also introduced and facilitated strategic planning for the Y-12 Plant.
Following retirement, he also served as an independent management consultant for six more years, specializing in strategic planning for several divisions of the three Department of Energy plants in Oak Ridge, for DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and the Oak Ridge school system, as well as other organizations.
During those early working years in Oak Ridge, he continued his education and earned his master's degree in 1958 in industrial management from the University of Tennessee.
Bill was also an active member of the Oak Ridge community, serving on numerous boards including Methodist Medical Center, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties, Citizens for National Security, PTAs, the '43 Club, the Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees (CORRE) and the Oak Ridge Heritage & Preservation Association.
Since its beginning, Bill served his beloved St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in several leadership roles, serving tenures on the vestry and many standing committees. For the past decade, he served as its archivist, having organized its records and compiling the church history. He was also active at the Diocese of East Tennessee, where he served as a member of The Ecclesiastical Court, as well as on committees and commissions. He often represented St. Stephen's as a delegate to diocesan conventions.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: William J Wilcox
Titles and Terms: Jr
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 17 Aug 1946
Event Place: Cocke, Tennessee, United States
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Spouse's Name: Eugenia Holder
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Reference ID: 545
GS Film number: 1928651
Digital Folder Number: 004485966
Image Number: 00704
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