Furman, Robert R., 1915-2008

Civil engineer and U.S. Army officer.

Biographical Note

Robert R. Furman, born Aug. 21, 1915, graduated from Trenton (N.J.) High School, 1932, and the school of engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., 1937. In 1940, Furman joined the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District, and in 1942 was assigned to the office of Leslie M. Groves, the military director of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War II. In 1944, Furman was attached to the Alsos Mission, an intelligence operation conducted to investigate German nuclear capabilities. Furman delivered nuclear components on board the Indianapolis (cruiser) to Tinian Island for final assembly of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 1945. After the war, Furman traveled to Japan to interview Japanese scientists to examine the state of that country’s nuclear program. Furman died in 2008.