John L. Magee, 91; Chemist Worked on the Manhattan Project
John L. Magee, 91, a chemist who participated in the Manhattan Project that developed the atom bomb during World War II, died Dec. 16 at an assisted-living facility in Moraga, Calif.
Magee worked alongside J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe on one of the most celebrated and controversial projects in the history of science.
But after the Germans surrendered, Magee was among project members who opposed using the bomb against Japan. Nevertheless, atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prompting Japan’s surrender.
A native of Franklinton, La., Magee earned degrees from Mississippi College and Vanderbilt University, and in 1939 a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. After postdoctoral work at Princeton and work as a research chemist, he was asked to join the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M., in 1943.
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