Robert Furman

Robert R. Furman (1915–2008) was a civil engineer who during World War II was the chief of foreign intelligence for the Manhattan Engineer District directing espionage against the German nuclear energy project.^[1] The depth of his involvement during the war was only revealed in the few years before his death.

As a civil engineer he was a key figure overseeing the construction of The Pentagon building and later in life founded Furman Builders Inc.^[2]

Biography

He was born on August 21, 1915, in Trenton, New Jersey. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1937 with a degree in civil engineering.^[2]

In December 1940, Furman was activated as a member of the United States Army Reserve and assigned to the Quartermaster Corps construction division where he oversaw day-to-day construction of The Pentagon.^[3] He was overseen in this work by Leslie Groves. When the building was completed in 1943, Groves was reassigned to the "Manhattan Project" and brought his aide, Furman, with him. In August 1943 Furman was put in charge of an intelligence effort formed by Groves in response to concerns of the atomic bomb project scientists about the German nuclear effort.^[1] As director of intelligence Furman was responsible for ascertaining the progress the Germans were making, a series of operations with the intent to place all uranium in Europe into allied hands, and at the end of the war rounding up German atomic scientists and keeping them out of the Soviet Union.^[2] He also participated in missions on the front lines, including a daring commando raid into Belgium to seize a sample of German uranium under sniper fire.^[4] In July 1945, he personally escorted half of the uranium necessary for the atomic bomb Little Boy to Tinian.^[4]

He left the army the year after the war ended and founded Furman Builders Inc. in Rockville, Maryland, which built hundreds of structures including the U.S. embassy in Nicaragua.^[5] He married in 1952; he and his wife had four children and for the most part kept quiet about his exploits during the war.^[2] He died on October 14, 2008 at Buckingham's Choice retirement community in Adamstown, Maryland of metastatic melanoma at the age of 93.^[5]

References