Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years

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HUMAN RADIATION STUDIES: REMEMBERING THE EARLY YEARS Oral History of Donner Lab Administrator United States Department of Energy Office of Human Radiation Experiments

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her Openness Initiative. As part of this initiative, the Department of Energy Iundertook an effort to identify and catalog hstorical documents on radiation experiments that had used human subjects. The Ofice of Human Radiation Experiments coordinated the Department search for records about these experiments. An enormous volume of historical records has been located. Many of these records were disorganized; often poorly cataloged, if at all; and scattered across the country in holding areas, archives, and records centers. The Department has produced a roadmap to the large universe of pertinent information: Human Radiation Experiments: The Department of Energy Roadmap to the Story and the Records (DOE/EH-0445, February 1995). The collected documents are also accessible through the Internet World Wide Web under cords, and the fact that some decisionmaking processes were never documented in written form, caused the Department to consider other means to supplement the In September 1994, the Office of Human Radiation Experiments, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, began an oral history project to fulfill this goal. The project involved interviewing researchers and others with firsthand knowledge of either the human radiation experimentation that occurred during the Cold War or the institutional context in which such experimentation took place. The purpose of this project was to enrich the documentary record, provide missing information, and allow the researchers an opportunity to provide their perspective. Thirty audiotaped interviews were conducted fiom September 1994 through January 1995. Interviewees were permitted to review the transcripts of their oral histories. Their comments were incorporated into the final version of the transcript if those comments supplemented, clarified, or corrected the contents of the interThe Department of Energy is grateful to the scientists and researchers who agreed to participate in this project, many of whom were pioneers in the development of

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Hiring On at the Dormer Laboratory ...................................2 Creation of the Dormer Laboratory ....................................9 Reflections on John Lawrence as Laboratory Director .................... 11 John Gofman: Research and Controversy .............................. 14 Budgeting and Staffing ............................................ Patient Care in the Donner Clinic Research Program ..................... 23 Changes in Laboratory Organization Under Ed Alpen .................... 28 Changes in Research Funding ....................................... 32

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The opinions expressed by the interviewee are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Department neither endorses nor disagrees with such views. Moreover: the Department of Energy makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by the interviewee.

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Interview with Baird G. Whaley Setting: August 15, 1994, Berkeley, California Interviewer:Anna Berge, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Archives and Records Office) ORAL HISTORY OF DONNER LAB ADMINISTRATOR On August 15, 1994, Ms. Anna Berge of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Archives and Records Orffice interviewed Mr. Whaley at his residence in Berkeley, Baird Whaley war selectedfor the oral history project because of the high adminisratory (Division of Bio-Medical Science). The interview covers his career as an administrator for Donner Lab from 1954 to 1986. He discusses how Donner Lab operated as an administrative unit within LBL; how Donner changed as a result of changing directorships; and how Dr. John Lawrence charted a somewht administratively independent coursefor Donner Lab. Mr. Whaleyalso covers Donner Lab’s tion. He talks about the personalities of the people at Donner and what they were working on.He also discusses the Donner famil) and their relationship to the lab. George Baird Whaley, Jr. was born April 20, 1929, in Berkeley, California. Married since 1954, he has two children. Mr. Whaley graduated in 1951 with a B.S. in Math with honors from the University of California, Berkeley [(UC Berkeley)]. From 1951 to 1953, he served as an infantry lieutenant during the Korean War. In August 1954, he took an administrative position at Donner Laboratory. From 1954 to 1977, he served as administrative assistant to the director of Donner Lab, and later as codivision administrator for personnel, non-DOE funds, and general administration. From 1977 to 1985, Mr. Whaley was the division administrator for Donner Lab. He served for a short time as a special assistant to the director of Donner Lab, until retiring in August of 1986. During his 32-year career at the lab, Mr. Whaley served on many LBL committees: 1965-Administrative Service Salary Committee 1973 to 1976-Member and Chairperson (1974-76), Employee Relations Committee 1979-Prepared a special report to the Director of LBL on split verse joint faculty 1983 to 1985-Technical Salary Committee. Mr. Whaley has been a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Mu Epsilon since 1950 and a member of the Society of Research Administrators since 1974. From 1988 to 1991, Mr. Whaley came out of retirement to work on a special assignment for LBL. Mr. Whaley still lives with in Berkeley, California, with his wife. Mary Ann.

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Interview with Baird G. Whaley Setting: August 15, 1994,Berkeley, California Interviewer:Anna Berge, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Archives and Records Ofice) Hiring On at the Donner Laboratory BERGE: [My name is Anna Berge. I work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) Archives and Records Office. I am conducting an oral history of Baird Whaley] on August 15, 1994, at his residence in Berkeley. I was wondering if you could start us off with a little description of how you got to be what you got to be, and how you ended up at the lab? I went to the University of California at Berkeley and majored in Math, and graduated in 1951. I was in ROTC [(Reserve Officer Training Corps)] when the Korean War had broken out; so I was called up into active duty. I was in for about 19 months, wounded, got out. I didn’t have anything in particular to do. My uncle was an entrepreneur. He had the Oldsmobile agency in Berkeley, and a number of other small businesses. He liked to buy sick businesses and cure them, or try to cure them. He had a stationery store that he was trying to sell and needed a manager, and I needed a job. So I went to work for him for about a year. Then he found a buyer. I was about to get married at that point [(1954)]. I got married with no job and decided that since the University was the biggest employer in town, and since I wanted to stay in Berkeley, I would try there. I went to the Bureau of Occupations and talked to Nancy Corson, who I think was the assistant there at that time. She wasn’t very helpful, and I left without anything particular to follow up on. I got home, and that afternoon she called and said there was a position at what was then known as the Rad Lab.’ They were looking for someone to do administrative work at the Donner Laboratory2; but who also had a scientific background. And math counted as a scientific background. I went in and talked to Bill Bigelow. And he then arranged an interview for me with [the Donner Laboratory director], Jim Born. Of course, I had one with perkeley Radiation Laboratory Director] John Lawrence.’ That’s how I got there.4 I was hired as an administrative assistant. He [(Lawrence)] wasn’t very big on titles during those days. I started on August 5, 1954. I stayed there until I retired, on August 31, 1986. While Dr. Lawrence was the director,$I had essentially the same job. At one point, I did take over the administration of what we called the “odd I UC Radiation Laboratory; renamed Lawrence Radiation Laboratory; now Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U S . Department of Energy: founded by Ernest Lawrence in 1936 a laboratory set up at the UC Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley during the 1930s specifically to conduct experiments in medical physics Dr. John Lawrence, brother of Ernest 0. Lawrence, was Director of the Division of Medica1 Physics at the University of California Berkeley. He operated a clinic at Donner Laboratory, where he treated leukemia and polycythemia vera patients with radioactive phosphorus. Mr. Whaley added later: “We used to joke a bit that one of Dr. Lawrence’s principal ways of concluding an interview was to hire people. He had a little difficulty sometimes in saying ‘no’.” Mr. Whaley added later: “He was the director until 1970. and then went on the Regents.”

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Interview with Baird G. Whaley Setting: August 15, 1994, Berkeley, California Interviewer: Anna Berge, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Archives and Records Office) and various others, that at that time couldn’t come through the Laboratory). They came through the campus. Those were a much smaller fraction of our support than the AEC. But I looked after those, and also the personnel side of the operation. There was a kind-of dual management. A man named Bob San Souci (he has since passed away) was the business manager. Again, that wasn’t an official title. He looked after the AEC side of it and the “things” side: purchasing, the plant maintenance, etc. He moved to Livermore,’ when Jack Gofmad left Donner and went out to head up the new biomed program at Livermore.’ Igor Blake was hired to replace him. Igor and I also had kind-of dual status, which amounted to kind-of coadrninistrators, until Ed Alpen came in in 1976. Within a year, Igor went into central administration and wasn’t replaced. I became the administrator of the whole division, fiom 1977 until I retired in 1986. Where would you like me to go from that? Maybe we could start in some kind of chronological order; starting with your first years in the 1950s. For example, you mentioned that you worked primarily with the non-AEC funding. What other institutions did Donner have dealings with? WHALEY: There was a large amount of donations from patients and families of patients, and friends of Dr. Lawrence. He and his wife were very wellconnected socially, in San Francisco and on the Peninsula. These were wealthy people.” And they became interested in his work, and contributed to the Laboratory. John Gofman had Air Force contracts, and he had support from Eli Lilly [in Indianapolis]. I don’t know if they still exist. They were a big pharmaceutical firm,”and they may have been merged into something else.’: Merck-they were also a pharmaceutical the US. Atomic Energy Commission, predecessor agency to the U.S. Dep ment of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); established January 1, 1947 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livennore. California John Gofman was a physician and biophysicist. For the interview with Gofman, see DOEEH-0457, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral Histoy ofDr. John W. Gofman.M.D. (June 1995). The Biomedical Division at Lawrence Livermore was set up in 1962 by the chairman of AEC’s Division of Biology and Medicine, Charles Dunham. The establishment of this laboratory is discussed under “Livermore Biomedical Division; Conflicts With John Gofman (1962-72)” in the John R. Totter transcript (DOEEH-0481. September 1995). For insight into discussions leading to establishing this laboratory from and “Jack, all we want is the truth” in the Gofman transcript (DOEEH-0457, June 1995). Lawrence belonged to the Bohemian Club. an exclusive social club in the San Francisco area known for back-to-nature retreats to Yosemite and the power and influence of its members. a firm that develops and manufactures drugs approved for human use Lilly has not merged with or been acquired by another firm.

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Interview with Baird G. Whaley Setting: August 15, 1994, Berkeley, California Interviewer:Anna Berge, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Archives and Records office) house.I3 Also, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Those were was principally in the National Institutes of Health [(NIH)] area.I4 I’ve learned that your memory gets a little fuzzy.Later, there was a shift in the handling of these funds, and they came through LBL. The reason that these funds originally came in through the campus, as I mentioned before, was that they couldn’t come in through the Laboratory, because the Laboratory was strictly an AEC (later ERDA” and DOE16) operation. It wasn’t permitted to have other kinds of financial support-. That’s been a source of problems all along. I think one of the things that the AEC looked at was the fact that they paid for everything. They paid for the buildings and the roads, and the whole works. Why should, then, some other agency come in and get a free ride? Which was a point of view you could certainly argue either way. Donner was on the campus. That’s an important point. When I first went there in 1954, the original wing of the Donner Laboratory (which had been built in 1941 and ’42) was there, and construction was underway on what I still call the new building, although it’s 40 years old now; the wing that comes out to the north from the original building. Our 0ffjcel7and the Technical Illustrations section were in Room 100, Building T- 1, which was the easternmost of a string of former Navy barracks that were dismantled and brought in from Camp Parks, and located on campus in Botany Glage. T- 1 was located roughly where the front porch of Evans Hall is now. The animal colony was then in Building 5 5 , which now is, or was when I was last there, Research Medicine (the building that is just below Building 90). We had one small piece of space, probably no more than a room, in Building 50. At that time, Crocker Laboratory and the sixty-inch cyclotronI8were still in existence on the campus. Although Crocker was under the same contract, we had very little connection with Dr. ha milt on'^'^ group. Crocker was. de facto, almost separate administraMerck & Co., Inc., based in White House Station, New Jersey, remains one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the United States. Mr. Whaley added later: “I went back and helped with a lawsuit in 1990. And using my recollection of things that had gone on in the late seventies and early eighties. I was surprised at the number of things that I had forgotten or I hadn’t remembered quite correctly.“ The U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration succeeded the AEC in the early O OS, and in turn was replaced by the DOE in 1977. U.S. Department of Energy, created in 1977 Mr. Whaley added later: “When I speak of ’our office,’ that included Jim Born, who was the assistant director. He was also heavily involved in the medical research end of it; and Janice DeMoor was the secretary that we shared. She is certainly somebody you should talk to, and was there longer than I was. I think she’s still alive and functioning and lives here in Berkeley.“ an accelerator in which particles move in spiral paths in a constant magnetic field Joseph Hamilton, an M.D., worked at Crocker Laboratory. then the site of a 60-inch cyclotron that he operated to produce radioisotopes in support of research and some medical diagnosis and treatment. Crocker was part of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.

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Setting: August 15, 1994, Berkeley, California Interviewer: Anna Berge, …