Shirley S. Woods

Shirley Woods graduated from Cornell University with a degree in sociology in 1943, and went to work as a project engineer at Remington Arms in New York, making $5 more per hour than her husband, a chemical engineer. She later worked at Columbia University, where she oversaw the spectrometer machine helping to build the prototype of cells for poisonous gas. They volunteered to move to Oak Ridge, Tenn., where she and her husband worked on the atomic bomb, although there was a time when she didn’t realize what the testing was for. Shirley reminisces about rationing, bonds, and how all family members did their part.