Interview with William Lipscomb. November 3, 1991. Interview by Thomas Hager for use in "Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling,"
(Simon & Schuster, 1995).
William Lipscomb: Now, the war intervened. In the first semester of December, my draft board in Kentucky,
when I left in the fall, said "We'll get you, don't worry," and they began putting
me in Y-A all the time, the ready to go category. And so I went to Linus about this
and he says "Well, we've got some war projects. I think we'll put you on them."
So I had only one semester of formal training at that point. And I went on war projects.
So I was there 1941 to 1946, so a very abnormal time. It was, in one way, a very
stable time because it was the same group of people the whole time. And another, it's
a very unstable time because that any work you did on your research, you had to do
at night. And all during the day you had to do some kind of war projects and in fact
in my Ph.D. thesis, there are two sections on the war work. One of the strange things
- my thesis was put in a cabinet, in a safe somewhere and nobody could find it for
years.
Thomas Hager: Because it was classified.
William Lipscomb: Because it was classified.
Clip
Creator: Thomas Hager, Joseph Koepfli Associated: Linus Pauling Clip ID: hager2.002.6-lipscomb
