American Prometheus (147 page)

Toni Oppenheimer on horseback. “From when she was six or seven years old,” Verna Hobson observed, “the rest of the family relied on her to be sensible and solid and to cheer them on.”

Oppenheimer lost his security clearance, but kept his job as director of the Institute for Advanced Study. Here, walking with Kitty in Princeton.

Robert could “just pour in the love” he felt for Peter Oppenheimer.

After the 1954 security hearing Oppenheimer “was like a wounded animal,” Francis Fergusson recalled. “He retreated. And returned to a simpler way of life.” He took his family to St. John in the Virgin Islands. Later he built a spartan beach cottage, and the family (below) spent many months each year on the beautiful island. He and Kitty were expert sailors.

Sitting with his old friend Niels Bohr, 1955.

In 1960 Oppenheimer visited Tokyo (below) where he told reporters, “I do not regret that I had something to do with the technical success of the atomic bomb. It isn’t that I don’t feel bad; it is that I don’t feel worse tonight than I did last night.”

Oppenheimer in his office at the Institute.

In April 1962 President John F. Kennedy invited Oppenheimer to the White House. He is seen here shaking hands with Jackie Kennedy.

Frank at the Exploratorium in 1969, a science museum in San Francisco that gives visitors a “hands-on” experience with physics, chemistry, and other fields, which he founded with his wife, Jackie.

In 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson (below) awarded Oppenheimer (left, with Kitty and Peter) the $50,000 Fermi Prize. David Lilienthal thought the whole affair “a ceremony of expiation for the sins of hatred and ugliness visited upon Oppenheimer.”

Right, Edward Teller, who had testified against Oppenheimer in 1954, approached to offer his congratulations. Oppenheimer grinned and shook Teller’s hand, while Kitty stood stone-faced beside her husband.