Robert Oppenheimer, a well-known physicist who played a key role in the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, was married to Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. In addition to being a highly esteemed individual in her own right, Katherine is said to have had a significant impact on the life and career of her husband.
Katherine Oppenheimer: Who was she?
Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer was a German American biologist and botanist who had previously belonged to the Communist Party of America. She is well known for having been J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife as well as Joe Dallet’s common-law spouse.
When Katherine Puening was three years old, her family relocated from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, Germany, where she was born. There, she spent the remainder of her formative years. Although she enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, she dropped out before graduating. She relocated to Paris where she briefly attended the Sorbonne and the University of Grenoble.
Frank Ramseyer, a musician Kitty had first married in 1933 after meeting him in Paris, was only married for a short time. The couple decided to get a divorce a few months later, and Puening later refused to acknowledge the union. Only after being questioned by the FBI did she finally confess.
In the fall of 1933, Kitty started her studies at the University of Wisconsin. There, she met and later married Joseph Dallet, a communist organizer who worked to organize steelworkers. Her entire life, she referred to Dallet as her first husband. In October 1937, a battle claimed the life of Dallet.
Puening returned to school in 1938 and enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania’s biology program. She wed Richard Harrison, a physician from the United Kingdom. After moving to California with Harrison in 1939, she started her graduate studies in botany at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kitty soon started dating nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who would be crucial in the development of the atomic bomb. Puening divorced Harrison in November 1940, and she later wed Oppenheimer. Two children were eventually born to the couple.
Katherine Oppenheimer began hosting annual theoretical physics conferences in Robert Oppenheimer’s memory after his 1967 death from throat cancer. After Oppenheimer’s passing, she grew close to Robert Serber, her late husband’s lifelong friend.
After purchasing a ketch, Oppenheimer and Serber embarked on a sea voyage in 1972. She fell ill while traveling and was taken to a hospital in Panama City, where it was determined that she had an embolism and an intestinal infection. In ten days, she passed away.
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