14-04  Barthalomew B. Rivers

biography:

B. B. (Bart) Rivers went to work at Hanford after reading newspaper articles inviting workers to work in Washington. He was assigned as an instrument tech. He was an Apache Indian and a very patriotic individual. At some time during his work on the project, he was involved in some kind of a radiation spill or leak in which the other three men were fatally injured. He attributed his survival to the fact that he was holding a piece of masonite between him and the radiation. His legs were badly burned and scarred but he lived a long full life after the incident. He remained very proud of the work on the Manhattan Project and carried a lighter with the brass pin of the project on it and a ring of similar design. Though he left Richland in 1964 and went to work at the Nevada Test Site, his fondest memories were of Hanford and Richland. I don't know what he did at Hanford and probably never will. But I am as proud of him for his contribution as he was of me for my Marine Vietnam service.