John Harry Williams (1908-1966) and Vera Martin Williams (1910-1976)

by Susan Martin Williams Heneman,  November, 2004 

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Sources of this information include personal family records, several books about Los Alamos, and a biographical memoir of John H. Williams by Alfred O.C. Nier of the University of Minnesota published by the National Academy of Sciences in 1968.

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John Harry Williams was born on July 7, 1908 in Asbestos Mines, Quebec, Canada.  His father was a mining engineer who died in the First World War. John and his three brothers Elewyn, Lloyd, and Arthur were raised in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, by their widowed mother, Josephine Stockwell Williams.  Josephine lived long enough to see all four of her boys finish college, marry, and find success and happiness as adults. 

After finishing public high school, John attended the University of British Columbia on a full scholarship, graduating with a major in physics in 1928 at the age of 19.  During his last year at U.B.C., he married swim teammate Vera Martin (1910-1976).  Their first child, Lloyd John Williams (1929-2003) was born while John was a graduate student at Berkeley under the direction of Professor Samuel K. Allison.  Two daughters, Margaret Ann and Susan Martin, were born in 1941 and 1945. 

After earning his PhD in 1931 at age 22, Williams was awarded a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago to continue his work with Sam Allison. Williams published important early work on the widths and intensities of x-ray lines and later became a research assistant to Professor John T. Tate at the University of Minnesota. There, while carrying a full teaching load, Williams headed an effort to build a Van de Graaff generator and to finance a program of interdisciplinary research. 

In 1940, many prominent faculty members across the U.S. left their university posts to accept defense-related positions. At the time, Williams was still a Canadian citizen, so he could not yet participate in defense-related research.  Upon obtaining U.S. citizenship in early 1942, he began working on neutron cross section measurements related to the atomic bomb project.   

In early 1943, John and Vera moved from Minneapolis with their teenaged son Lloyd and toddler daughter (Margaret) Ann to Los Alamos, New Mexico, then called “Site Y” or “P.O. Box 1663”.  Williams was among the first group of scientists to arrive on the hill.  Among this group were Robert Wilson from Princeton, Robert Serber, Ed McMillan and Joseph Kennedy from Berkeley, and John Manley from Columbia.  John Williams joined the Experimental Physics Division (headed by Robert Bacher) as head of the Electrostatic Generator Group.  According to the Children of the Manhattan Project website, “Although Los Alamos was conceived in September of 1942 and occupied in April 1943, it was not until after the first plutonium arrived in Los Alamos July 10 1943, that the first physics experiment was conducted at Los Alamos. On July 15, John H. Williams' Electrostatic Generator Group (P-2) observed neutrons from the fission of plutonium-239.”  Just two years later, the first atomic bomb would be tested. 

In Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! Richard Feynman recalls arriving at Los Alamos:  “When I went into the laboratory, I would meet men I had heard of by seeing their papers in the Physical Review and so on.  I had never met them before. ‘This is John Williams’ they’d say.  Then a guy stands up from a desk that is covered with blueprints, his sleeves all rolled up, and he’s calling out the windows, ordering trucks and things going in different directions with building material.  In other words, the experimental physicists had nothing to do until their buildings and apparatus were ready, so they just built the buildings – or assisted in building the buildings.” 

John Williams helped get Los Alamos organized, equipped, and ready for the work to be done, but his key roles would come later.  He was responsible for the two University of Wisconsin Van de Graaff generators at Los Alamos.  He also served as Kenneth Bainbridge’s Deputy Director for the first atomic bomb test in 1945, as leader of the Services Division, overseeing all special equipment, wiring, power, transportation, technical personnel, communication facilities, and construction for the test.   

Williams’ activities on the day of the Trinity Test are well documented in Lansing Lamont’s book Day of Trinity.  Lamont notes that on July 16, 1945 at 4:45 a.m. at Trinity, John Williams was waiting at South 10,000 when Kenneth Bainbridge phoned him with the order, “Prepare to fire at five-thirty.”  With ten seconds left, “Williams and George Kistiakowsky dashed from the control shelter.  Williams squatted behind a ridge of dirt and Kisty clambered on top of a bunker.”   Although they were almost two miles from the blast, they were among the few men who were relatively close. 

Throughout their years in New Mexico, the Williams family was active in the Los Alamos community and its social life. Vera was in charge of the housing office and making arrangements for domestic services for Los Alamos residents which were provided by Native Americans from the nearby San Ildefonso Pueblo.  John helped to organize the school system and later served as President of the School Board. Lloyd’s activities as a high school student leader are  described by Bernice Brode in Reminiscences of Los Alamos.  The couple’s third child, Susan, was born in the fall of 1945, a few months after the bomb test that J. Robert Oppenheimer had named “Trinity” after a John Donne poem he’d been reading.  John and Vera briefly considered naming their daughter “Trinity” too, but wisely reconsidered. 

After the war ended, Williams worked on the Bikini bomb tests, and eventually returned to the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1946.  Many graduate students worked with him using the re-built Van de Graaff until 1967 when it was finally retired.  Professor Williams was widely respected and considered a very strong advocate for the improvement and modernization of the school’s research facilities.  He also served two terms on the Board of the Campus Club and was the first person elected twice to its presidency.  Vera was also active for many years in Minnesota with her church, P.T.A., Faculty Women’s Club, League of Women Voters, and Girl Scouts.  

John and Vera were avid sports fans who attended many sports events, and John served on the U. of M.’s Athletic Committee. He enjoyed a good game of poker, pool, or golf, but his first love was fishing.  He and several former Los Alamos colleagues and friends made annual fall canoe trips to the wilderness of Quetico Park, Ontario, or as it’s known today, the “Boundary Waters”.   

On July 16, 1951, the sixth anniversary of the Trinity test, while vacationing at their summer cabin on Lake Carnelian, John discovered a small lump in his chest.  Soon it was confirmed that he had cancer. He had just turned 43.  He would fight the disease for almost 14 years, enduring many new experimental medications, treatments, and risky surgeries.  Throughout this time he often expressed the hope of not only lengthening his own life, but also of providing important information for the newest oncology research at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. Ultimately he didn’t beat the cancer, but he did survive longer than medical experts predicted. 

During the early 1950’s Williams was instrumental in creating the Midwest Universities Research Association (MURA), dedicated to the study, design, and construction of a significant high-energy facility in the midwest.  He served as chair of the site-selection committee, board member and president of the organization.  He later served on the Argonne National Laboratory Policy Advisory Board.  In 1958 he was appointed Director of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Research Division, and in this position he represented the needs of science to the Congress. After only one year in this role, President Eisenhower appointed him as an Atomic Energy Commissioner. Despite continuing treatment for cancer, he continued to serve the AEC until 1960, when he resigned to return to the University of Minnesota for more cancer treatment. He later accepted a position with the AEC as a consultant, and was appointed to the General Advisory Committee to the Commission, a position which he held until his death in 1966. 

Williams was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of British Columbia and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by the Pennsylvania Military College in 1960. In 1959 Williams was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1963 to the Presidency of the American Physical Society.  In 1965, he was named the first President of the newly formed Argonne Universities Association. 

This is a quote from A.O.C. Nier’s biographical memoir: 

“The new responsibility [President of the Argonne Universities’ Association, Inc.] included innumerable meetings and weekly trips between Minneapolis and Chicago.  It was on one of these journeys that he was stricken with influenza.  Upon his return to Minneapolis his condition deteriorated, and a few days later he died of pneumonia at the age of 57. 

“A dedication of the accelerator laboratories, naming them the John H. Williams Laboratory of Nuclear Physics, had been planned for May 3, 1966, but, because of his unexpected death just a few weeks before the proposed celebration, the occasion was changed to a combination Memorial and Dedication ceremony…

“John Williams left his mark wherever he went.  He was known as an excellent teacher in both the undergraduate and graduate courses which he taught.  His research was recognized for its quality and significance.  He was a builder of men and laboratories.  He distinguished himself as an administrator and statesman of science, as well as a counselor to those who needed help of either a personal or professional nature.  His office door was never closed, and students and colleagues were always welcome.  He showed the same concern for his graduate students as he did for his own children.  He was enormously respected by those who worked for him, not alone for his own accomplishments, but even more because he was considerate and respectful of his fellow workers regardless of their status.  His home was always open, and he and his wife were noted for the warmth and informality of their hospitality.  Even without any of these accomplishments and attributes, he will be remembered for the example he set during his long illness, when he carried more than his share of responsibilities and faced the world with a courage found only in the truly great.” 

In 2004, John Harry Williams would have been 94.  He would have greatly enjoyed all six of his grandchildren, but he only lived long enough to meet half of them. Lloyd attended Los Alamos High, the University of Minnesota, and M.I.T., and retired in the Boston area after a career in architecture. His widow is Carole Williams of Saugus, MA and his adult children are Matthew and Timothy Williams.  Ann and Susan both graduated from the University of Minnesota High School.  Ann graduated from the University of Maryland, and recently retired after more than 40 years as a registered nurse. She lives in Flagstaff AZ.  Her adult children are Catherine Bertram and Charles Drissel.  Susan worked as a teacher and project manager after graduating from DePauw University.  She and her husband Herb have lived in the Madison, Wisconsin area for 38 years, and are now semi-retired. Their two adult children are John Stockwell Heneman and Herbert G. Heneman IV.  

For additional information about John H. Williams, please contact

Susan Williams Heneman

5621 Mendota Drive

Middleton, WI 53562

sheneman@charter.net