Lee Nitteberg Oral History
Dublin Core
Title
Lee Nitteberg Oral History
Subject
Hanford Atomic Products Operation
Description
Part of the CREHST 2003 Oral History public programming. Interviews filmed in front of a live audience.
Creator
CREHST Museum
Publisher
Hanford History Project at Washington State University Tri-Cities
Date
2003
Rights
Those interested in reproducing part or all of this oral history should contact the Hanford History Project at ourhanfordhistory@tricity.wsu.edu.
Language
English
Identifier
RG2D_4A / T.2010.052.06
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewee
Lee Nitteberg
Transcription
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
TITLE: CREHST ORAL HISTORY 2003
INTERVIEW DATE: 2003
INTERVIEW LOCATION: UNKNOWN
INTERVIEWER: UNKNOWN
INTERVIEWED: LEE NITTEBURG
TRANSCRIBER: JUDY SIMPSON
LENGTH: 8:30 MINUTES
LEE: Okay, I grew-up on a farm in South Eastern South Dakota about two miles from next door line; about twenty miles from Sioux Falls. I don’t know if any of you have been back in that area, but it’s a farming community where I grew up. When you go across the Missouri River on the west side of it; it is just like going from one country to another. It goes from farming into cattle country and things like that. My Dad had a farm that was 200 acres. He rented 80 acres. I was born there in 1925. I had an older brother during World War II; he did not pass the physical because he had a heart attack, and he was about 25 so he didn’t get in. Then in “43” or “44,” then “43” and January of “44” I took my physical. I did not pass because I had problems with my feet. So I went into the farming for four years; we had 200 acres that we were farming.
INTERVIEWER: So what brought you out……out here?
LEE: I went to the South Dakota School of Minds in Rapid City. At that time there were airplane industries; Boeings, there were other airline manufactures, GE from here. I visited our colleges and talked with those who were graduating, and told us about the area and the type of work. I decided I wanted to get involved in the type of work here. So that is how come I ended up here in 1951 and it was during the Cold War; that was way they were getting so many tech grads until they were called. Graduates out of college coming out here. The story was that there were 250 tech grads and 250 secretaries same time. I mentioned secretaries’ fact because Bob’s wife was a secretary in the design group I was in. My wife to be worked down the hall and eventually we got married.
INTERVIEWER: It says here that you have obtained your Masters through the GE College of Nuclear Knowledge.
LEE: That’ right.
INTERVIEWER: What is that?
LEE: Ok, GE had a night school going on -a class a week, so it took quite awhile. You went to college at night school here in one of the dormitories which was down where Rite-Aide is now was the women’s dormitories; the men’s dormitories were on the other side of the Federal Building complex. You had to graduate from one of the universities; Oregon State, Oregon University, Washington State, or Idaho. I took Idaho, because it was one of the few that you did not have to put in one quarter at the school if you had not graduated from there originally. That is how come I ended up with a degree from Idaho, but they could not issue the degrees here through GE.
INTERVIEWER: And what was your local job here in the Tri-Cities area.
LEE: I came here I went to work in construction engineering. I worked as a mechanical engineer; I had a Bachelor’s and Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering. I worked primarily in ventaltion; filteration of the reactors, and so on, eventually did that. I did a lot of piping anywhere from this size (shows his little finger) and smaller up to 2 to 3 feet in diamerter. I did; steamlines, waterlines, airlines, and various types of facilities. I worked in all the reactors out here in the plant doing revisions of these desiginer visions of these various things primarily ventaltion and piping. I also worked in all the separation plants and all the main labatories on the plant.
INTERVIEWER: In order to do that you must have had some type of clearance.
LEE: Right
INTERVIEWER: “Q” clearance or Top Secret clearance. What were the culture and the feeling out at Hanford?
LEE: Okay, when I came to work here you had to have a “Q” clearance to work in any of the government work facilities. I did not have a “Q” clearance. They sent me on off site inspection. I was hired in June 1951. I was sent to an area near Chicago, I worked there for about 3 months. Then I went to Stanton, I got my clearance, but they needed help back in Elizabeth, New Jersey next to New York City, so I went back there and had a great big…a lot of fabrication work going on there. Vessels that were going to be installed out here. I got back in December of…. “51“. You had to have 3 to 4 months of rotation in three different organizations. Then I went to work in the construction engineering, and then I went to work in nuclear fields out in the 300 area. I was offered jobs in all these locations, but I wanted into design engineering because I enjoyed that. I was glad that I did.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, What did you and your wife do for an evening of fun?
LEE: Well, like Bob, we went dancing up here at the Community House. These plays were being put on primarly in Richland. We ended up in a “C” house when we got married. We were married two weeks after Bob and Vi were married in the CUP church, in 1954. In 1956 when things cooled off, we didn’t like the “C” house because our particular locatation the houses were built around a grassy area and the back of our house faced the street. We decided we would buy a house over in Kennewick, so we moved to Kennewick. Both Betty, my wife, my late wife and I liked to see senery and we would travel around the area. We would go to the coast and go clam digging. A minister we had taught us how to do that. We enjoyed that. We would just travel around when they were building the farms up north of here. We would get on these paved roads and all of a sudden…..end of road. You backup where you came from to get somewhere else.
INTERVIEWER: What has been the biggest change to the Tri-Cities?
LEE: I would say, that the expanison; the number of companies that have come in; privationization; and the number of people that have been brought in, do to that. When we bought our first house after we got our family going we decided it was too small, we had a house built out about three miles out of Kennewick and within about eight years we are completely surrounded. We ended up selling that and that is where one of the school houses on 19th Street is located there in Kennewick. It is the land I used to irrigate.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, I see that all the time. I see we have run out of time.
TITLE: CREHST ORAL HISTORY 2003
INTERVIEW DATE: 2003
INTERVIEW LOCATION: UNKNOWN
INTERVIEWER: UNKNOWN
INTERVIEWED: LEE NITTEBURG
TRANSCRIBER: JUDY SIMPSON
LENGTH: 8:30 MINUTES
LEE: Okay, I grew-up on a farm in South Eastern South Dakota about two miles from next door line; about twenty miles from Sioux Falls. I don’t know if any of you have been back in that area, but it’s a farming community where I grew up. When you go across the Missouri River on the west side of it; it is just like going from one country to another. It goes from farming into cattle country and things like that. My Dad had a farm that was 200 acres. He rented 80 acres. I was born there in 1925. I had an older brother during World War II; he did not pass the physical because he had a heart attack, and he was about 25 so he didn’t get in. Then in “43” or “44,” then “43” and January of “44” I took my physical. I did not pass because I had problems with my feet. So I went into the farming for four years; we had 200 acres that we were farming.
INTERVIEWER: So what brought you out……out here?
LEE: I went to the South Dakota School of Minds in Rapid City. At that time there were airplane industries; Boeings, there were other airline manufactures, GE from here. I visited our colleges and talked with those who were graduating, and told us about the area and the type of work. I decided I wanted to get involved in the type of work here. So that is how come I ended up here in 1951 and it was during the Cold War; that was way they were getting so many tech grads until they were called. Graduates out of college coming out here. The story was that there were 250 tech grads and 250 secretaries same time. I mentioned secretaries’ fact because Bob’s wife was a secretary in the design group I was in. My wife to be worked down the hall and eventually we got married.
INTERVIEWER: It says here that you have obtained your Masters through the GE College of Nuclear Knowledge.
LEE: That’ right.
INTERVIEWER: What is that?
LEE: Ok, GE had a night school going on -a class a week, so it took quite awhile. You went to college at night school here in one of the dormitories which was down where Rite-Aide is now was the women’s dormitories; the men’s dormitories were on the other side of the Federal Building complex. You had to graduate from one of the universities; Oregon State, Oregon University, Washington State, or Idaho. I took Idaho, because it was one of the few that you did not have to put in one quarter at the school if you had not graduated from there originally. That is how come I ended up with a degree from Idaho, but they could not issue the degrees here through GE.
INTERVIEWER: And what was your local job here in the Tri-Cities area.
LEE: I came here I went to work in construction engineering. I worked as a mechanical engineer; I had a Bachelor’s and Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering. I worked primarily in ventaltion; filteration of the reactors, and so on, eventually did that. I did a lot of piping anywhere from this size (shows his little finger) and smaller up to 2 to 3 feet in diamerter. I did; steamlines, waterlines, airlines, and various types of facilities. I worked in all the reactors out here in the plant doing revisions of these desiginer visions of these various things primarily ventaltion and piping. I also worked in all the separation plants and all the main labatories on the plant.
INTERVIEWER: In order to do that you must have had some type of clearance.
LEE: Right
INTERVIEWER: “Q” clearance or Top Secret clearance. What were the culture and the feeling out at Hanford?
LEE: Okay, when I came to work here you had to have a “Q” clearance to work in any of the government work facilities. I did not have a “Q” clearance. They sent me on off site inspection. I was hired in June 1951. I was sent to an area near Chicago, I worked there for about 3 months. Then I went to Stanton, I got my clearance, but they needed help back in Elizabeth, New Jersey next to New York City, so I went back there and had a great big…a lot of fabrication work going on there. Vessels that were going to be installed out here. I got back in December of…. “51“. You had to have 3 to 4 months of rotation in three different organizations. Then I went to work in the construction engineering, and then I went to work in nuclear fields out in the 300 area. I was offered jobs in all these locations, but I wanted into design engineering because I enjoyed that. I was glad that I did.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, What did you and your wife do for an evening of fun?
LEE: Well, like Bob, we went dancing up here at the Community House. These plays were being put on primarly in Richland. We ended up in a “C” house when we got married. We were married two weeks after Bob and Vi were married in the CUP church, in 1954. In 1956 when things cooled off, we didn’t like the “C” house because our particular locatation the houses were built around a grassy area and the back of our house faced the street. We decided we would buy a house over in Kennewick, so we moved to Kennewick. Both Betty, my wife, my late wife and I liked to see senery and we would travel around the area. We would go to the coast and go clam digging. A minister we had taught us how to do that. We enjoyed that. We would just travel around when they were building the farms up north of here. We would get on these paved roads and all of a sudden…..end of road. You backup where you came from to get somewhere else.
INTERVIEWER: What has been the biggest change to the Tri-Cities?
LEE: I would say, that the expanison; the number of companies that have come in; privationization; and the number of people that have been brought in, do to that. When we bought our first house after we got our family going we decided it was too small, we had a house built out about three miles out of Kennewick and within about eight years we are completely surrounded. We ended up selling that and that is where one of the school houses on 19th Street is located there in Kennewick. It is the land I used to irrigate.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, I see that all the time. I see we have run out of time.
Duration
00:08:32
Bit Rate/Frequency
317kbps
Files
Citation
CREHST Museum, “Lee Nitteberg Oral History,” Hanford History Project, accessed April 23, 2024, http://www.hanfordhistory.com/items/show/4629.