GLR September-October 2024

one. He taught chemistry at St. Peters College (now University) in nearby Jersey City. World events, however, would soon over take the young man’s career path. Hitler and Tojo were on the march, and the U.S. would soon be drawn into another world war—a horrific development, but it would also provide scien tists like Claude Schwob with an opportunity to contribute to humanity’s most ambitious scientific undertaking to date, the development of the atom bomb. Schwob was inducted into the Army in April in 1944, and he

1945. The next month, he was offered a post as assistant pro fessor of chemistry at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. There he remained for a brief period, resigning “for health and personal reasons” just two years later, at which point he headed to San Francisco. In 1948, he applied for a position at the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory in San Francisco, where he spent the remainder of his working career. He became one of the nation’s foremost experts on ra diation and human health, focusing on the detection, preven

was soon assigned to the top secret Manhat tan Project. In 1944, project scientists were in desperate need of additional trained per sonnel in chemistry, and Schwob was one of the best. At first he worked at the University of Chicago, where he helped solve the prob lem of extracting impurities from pluto nium. When those issues had been settled, he was transferred to the more famous lab

tion, and response to radiation exposure, which remained the central focus of his re search for the rest of his professional life. When he left the institute in 1964, it was probably because his security clearance had been revoked. But this was not the last time he would have to deal with the FBI and its campaign against “sex deviates.” The next time it

Developing the bomb was not the only secret that Schwob was harboring. There was also the ma tt er of his sexuality—something of an open secret.

oratory at Los Alamos, where he worked as a radiochemist in conjunction with some of the most important scientists of the age, including Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer. In a later report, Schwob stressed that his work on the Manhattan Project “involved entirely new and extremely delicate tech niques and a high order of scientific ability.” This was un doubtedly a colossal understatement. Schwob was also chosen to assist in testing the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Of course, all of this work was top secret, and although few individuals knew the entire scope of the project, just about everyone was aware that they were working on a bomb that had a great potential for destruction. The secret was out in August, 1945, when the device was dropped on Hiroshima. The full im pact of the explosion and its geopolitical implications would not be apparent until much later, but the team had achieved its goal. Oppenheimer was so pleased with Schwob’s work that he sent him a special thanks on October 1, 1945, acknowledging his contribution to the project: “You worked extremely hard in the preparation and development of a novel method of testing the atomic bomb and subsequently helped carry through this test with eminently satisfactory results.” Schwob had been granted a high-level security clearance by the government, which gave him access to some of the most highly classified materials. But developing the bomb was not the only secret that Schwob was harboring. There was also the matter of his sexuality, which was something of an open secret. The government needed his expertise, and his superiors were willing to look past his personal foibles. He had a steady boyfriend while working on the Manhattan Project, but no one seemed to mind. Nevertheless, it was during World War II that the U.S. military began to bar homosexuals from active serv ice. Draft boards began to screen out homosexuals from the rank-and-file recruits, but people with specialized skills deemed critical to the war effort continued to serve—at least until after the war was over. It was this double standard that allowed an openly gay man like Schwob to continue on in the Army. It also helped that, in addition to his brilliance as a scientist, he was a conventionally masculine man, which made it easy for people to conveniently forget that he was gay. Schwob was discharged from the Army in September

happened would be more horrific. §

O NE ADVANTAGE of this forced retirement was that Schwob had time for the things he enjoyed even more than radiochemical science. These included photography and sex, and often he was able to combine the two. His interest in photography began when he was a young man in New York. There he’d been em ployed by the early bodybuilder and physique photographer John M. Hernic. People would send nudes and physique photos

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