Priscilla Duffield

Priscilla Duffield (April 8, 1918 – July 21, 2009, née Greene) worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. She was secretary to Ernest O. Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory, and to J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory. After the war she was executive assistant to directors of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the National Accelerator Laboratory.

A graduate of the University of California, from which she obtained a degree in political science, Priscilla Greene started working for Lawrence in February 1942, and then for Oppenheimer later that year. She arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in March 1943, and established the Los Alamos Laboratory's office. She became the office manager at Los Alamos, greeting visitors, answering the telephone, making travel arrangements, arranging security passes and accommodation, and taking notes of telephone calls. In September 1943, she married Robert B. Duffield, a chemist working at the Los Alamos laboratory, and changed her surname from Greene to Duffield.

In the post-war years, Duffield was secretary and executive assistant to Roger Revelle, the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In November 1967, she became secretary and executive assistant to Robert R. Wilson, the founding director of the National Accelerator Laboratory, and once again she helped establish a new scientific laboratory on a new site. In later life she moved to Colorado, where she served on the board of the Uncompahgre Medical Clinic.

Early life Priscilla Greene was born in Berkeley, California, on April 8, 1918, and grew up in Corning, California. She entered the University of California, from which she obtained a degree in political science. After graduation, she studied and travelled in New York and Europe before returning to Berkeley, where she got a job as secretary to Ernest O. Lawrence, the director of the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, in February 1942, replacing Helen Griggs, who had left to marry Glenn Seaborg.

Manhattan Project When J. Robert Oppenheimer began working on the nuclear weapon design for the Manhattan Project during World War II, Lawrence loaned Greene part-time to take dictation and do general secretarial work for Oppenheimer, while still working full-time for himself. She handled travel arrangements, security passes and accommodation. Alex Wellersten noted that: While Oppenheimer gets much credit for keeping the entire bomb project in his head, it was actually Greene who managed the director’s office and kept it organized; it was Greene who took notes on phone conversations and managed the correspondence with far-flung sites; it was Greene who helped Oppenheimer, a man who had never managed anything in his life, stay on top of the innumerable tasks assigned to him. Duffield likened this job to working for Oppenheimer at Los Alamos:

Duffield moved to Norwood, Colorado, where she served on the board of the Uncompahgre Medical Clinic. She died of natural causes at her home there on July 21, 2009. She was survived by her daughters Deborah and Libby. Her husband Robert died in 2000.