The Tennessee Eastman Corporation, circa 1929. It would later become Tennessee Eastman Co., then Eastman Chemical Co.
Corps of Engineers, which put General Leslie R. Groves in charge. Having studied engineering at M.I.T. and having graduated fourth in his class at West Point, Groves was both intellectually capable and possessed of the kind of drive needed to keep a complicated project moving. On his first day in office, in September 1942, Groves purchased 1,250 tons of uranium and 52,000 acres of land along the Clinch River northwest of Knoxville, Tenn. Groves wanted things done quickly and done right. That mindset drove him to Eastman. On Christmas Eve 1942, Groves called James C. White, who was Tennessee Eastman’s general manager at the time. Groves had already hired DuPont and Union Carbide to operate other parts of the Oak Ridge facility, but wanted Eastman to run the electromagnetic plant. White initially declined, saying Eastman was already
stretched too thin, having only 6,500 employees with more than a third of those on military leave. Tennessee Eastman President Perley Wilcox was then contacted. He concurred with White’s assessment that the company could do no more. But Groves kept climbing the corporate ladder, and after he spoke with T.J. Hargrave, Kodak’s chairman of the board, and Albert Chapman, Kodak’s president, a meeting was arranged between Wilcox, White and Groves. Groves assured Wilcox and White the job would only require around 1,500 people, not to exceed 2,500. Somewhat mollified, White and Wilcox signed on. As it turned out, Groves had slightly underestimated the manpower requirement. By the end of the war, Y-12 would employ SEE EASTMAN, 34
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