Oral Histories

Interview of Stafford L. Warren (1983)

Dean of the UCLA School of Medicine and UCLA vice-chancellor of health services. Chief of the Medical Section of the Manhattan Engineering District. Chief of the Radiological Safety Section of the Joint Task Force for Operation Crossroads.
Subtitle:
An Exceptional Man for Exceptional Challenges
Series:
Interviews not in a series, part one
Topic:
UCLA and University of California History
Science, Medicine, and Technology
UCLA Faculty
Biographical Note:
Dean of the UCLA School of Medicine and UCLA vice-chancellor of health services. Chief of the Medical Section of the Manhattan Engineering District. Chief of the Radiological Safety Section of the Joint Task Force for Operation Crossroads.
Interviewer:
Tusler, Adelaide G.
Interviewee:
Warren, Stafford L.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Interviewer Background and Preparation:
The interview was conducted by Adelaide Tusler, Interviewer-Editor, UCLA Oral History Program; B.A., music, UCLA; M.L.S., UCLA.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Recent efforts in support of veterans hospitals; diplomatic relations with senators and congressmen; potential for medical education at veterans hospitals; development of mental health clinics in California; treatment of mental retardation; Frank F. Tallman; Reiss-Davis Clinic; University of California Regents Edward A. Dickson and Howard C. Naffziger oppose psychiatric facility on UCLA campus; Warren's appointment to President John F. Kennedy's mental retardation program, 1962; working relationship with Kennedy administration; governors' conference on mental retardation, 1963; promotion of residential care institutions; rehabilitation programs; Warren family history; paternal grandfather's move to California during Gold Rush; father's birth in Hayward, California; Stafford's birth in Maxwell City, New Mexico; growing up in Hayward; Portuguese-American and Spanish-American communities; reading Scientific American and all of local Carnegie library collection; encouraged to study medicine by mother; undergraduate and first year and a half of medical studies at University of California, Berkeley; promoting biomedical library computerization; antivivisection agitators; meeting future wife, Viola Lockhart, at UC Berkeley; research fellowship, Hooper Foundation for Medical Research; Elmer Belt; volunteer fellowship, Johns Hopkins University; internship, Massachusetts General Hospital, 1923-25; appointment to University of Rochester staff; George Whipple; European tour; meeting Marie Curie; radiology investigations; setting up X-ray department at Rochester; George Eastman's work and suicide; Warren approached to work on Manhattan Project, 1942; moving family to Oak Ridge; recruited to UCLA as medical school dean, 1947; physical security for Manhattan Engineer District workers; testing hazardous radiation levels; uranium extraction; Lauren Donaldson's work on Columbia River fish; Robert Stone and radiation research at Chicago; family life at Oak Ridge; tours of bomb damage in Japan; Corps of Engineers' medical and sociological problems at Oak Ridge; Hymer Friedell; Colonel Stanley L. Stewart joins interview: Stewart's recruitment to work on Manhattan Project by General Leslie Groves, procurement work for Los Alamos, New Mexico; bomb tests; Joint Task Force One at Bikini; death of Louis Slotin; radiation tests at Bikini; security considerations; J. Robert Oppen-heimer's skill in mediating controversies; Oppenheimer's security problems; opposition to use of bomb; James Franck; Atomic Energy Commission and David E. Lilienthal; medical school program, UCLA; site planning; Janss Investment Company; David Allison and design of buildings; support from Provost Clarence A. Dykstra; start of biomedical library, 1947; Louise Darling and Lawrence Clark Powell; opposition encountered to having medical school at UCLA; dealing with University of California Board of Regents; building faculty; linking veterans hospitals electronically; organization of medical school departments; Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy's support for neuropsychiatric unit.