98-Year-Old Mantoloking Resident Recalls Working with Oppenheimer on A-Bomb

With the success of the Oscar winning film, Oppenheimer, a new generation has become familiar with the Manhattan Project and the efforts to create the first atomic bomb. The most brilliant minds in America gathered in Los Alamos, New Mexico and created the weapon that they believed would bring an end to World War II. It was hard work and very serious business, but one scientist managed to bring a lighter side to the project. He was a twenty-two-year-old graduate student from the University of Chicago named Adam Bahm. 

"I wasn't the greatest physicist," says Bahm. "I was probably the dumbest guy at Los Alamos, but Enrico Fermi, the genius scientist, wanted me there because he said I made him laugh. He told me, 'if I gotta work with Oppenheimer, I'm gonna need a wisenheimer.' Fermi warned me that Oppenheimer was kind of grim, and it was true. He really took the fun out of making weapons of mass destruction."

Bahm delighted in teasing Oppenheimer. He stuck notes to the scientist's back. He would place funny hats on Oppenheimer's head. Other scientists were always waiting to see what Bahm would try next, and he did his best not to disappoint them. 

"One time, I managed to tape a sign to Oppenheimer's back," Bahm says. "Not your typical 'kick me' sign, either. It was something more appropriate for a bunch of nuclear physicists." The sign in question said, "irradiate me." Bahm still has the original in his Los Alamos scrap book. 

Unfortunately for Bahm, Oppenheimer didn't always appreciate being teased. The final straw came when Bahm managed to make changes to some of Oppenheimer's notes. 

"Oppie was always scribbling notes," says Bahm. "One day he left his notebook sitting around in the dining hall. I grabbed it and saw that he was working on what he would say after the bomb test. He had all that stuff about, 'Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds, blah, blah, blah!' Boring! So, I got rid of that page and wrote, 'And boom goes the dynamite!' How great would that have been if he said that after detonation? Too bad he noticed before the test."

Oppenheimer was furious with Bahm. He made him leave right after the atomic bomb test. "Oppie didn't want to let me see the blast, but I snuck out there and saw it anyway. Really impressive. My face was red for a week! Oppie kicked me out right after. As I was leaving, I shouted, 'So long Death, destroyer of worlds!' That got Oppie really mad. He tried to throw something at me, but he wasn't much of an athlete, so he missed me by a mile."

After the war, Adam Bahm finished his studies and returned to his native New Jersey. He taught physics for over 50 years at Rutgers before retiring in 2002. "Teaching wasn't as exciting as working on the development of weapons of mass destruction, but it paid the bills." says Bahm. These days, he enjoys his retirment at the shore, but often thinks back to his days at Los Alamos.

"The Oppenheimer movie was pretty accurate, but I think they should have included my character," says Bahm. "I know I wasn't all that important, but at least I brought a sense of whimsey to developing nuclear weapons. I think that deserves an Oscar, too."