"Ernest Wilkins Jr., worked on Manhattan Project, died at age 87"

cobbland

Ernest Wilkins Jr.

I never heard about him before, I feel ignorant for not knowing this. SMH

But what really comes as a surprise is that here’s this African-American man working on a device that would be deployed to end WW2, yet people who are the same race as him are “fighting for America” in segregated units, in addition to all of the other ? blacks dealt with in America prior to and after WW2.

Ernest Wilkins Jr., worked on Manhattan Project, died at age 87
By Katie Drews May 9, 2011 10:04AM

At an age when many teen-age boys are chasing girls, J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. was chasing a Ph.D.
The Chicago native was only 13 when he enrolled at the University of Chicago, and by age 19 he had earned a doctorate in mathematics.
Mr. Wilkins, a prominent African-American scientist, engineer and educator whose 61-year career included work on the first atom bomb, died May 1of respiratory failure at his Arizona home, his son said. He was 87.

“Most people would argue that he was one of the most important scientists and mathematicians in the 20th century,” said Walter Massey, a physicist who is now president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “His contributions were enormous.”
Mr. Wilkins was born in 1923 to Lucile Wilkins, a teacher, and J. Ernest Wilkins, an attorney who became the highest ranking African American in government when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him assistant secretary of labor in 1954.

Growing up on the South Side, the younger Mr. Wilkins was the eldest of three boys, all of whom possessed such extraordinary intellect that teachers, unable to challenge them adequately, just kept skipping them to the next grade.
Mr. Wilkins started elementary school at 4 years old, reached fifth grade by age 7 and became valedictorian at his first graduation at age 10. He breezed through high school in three years and earned a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he was the youngest student on campus.

“University of Chicago has high standards; it’s not like anybody just walks in,” said Robert Fefferman, dean of the physical sciences division at the U. of C. “This is the real thing, this person is really great.” The university was initially concerned about whether Mr. Wilkins could handle a college course load, but the child prodigy took on more than the required amount per quarter and graduated Phi Beta Kappa at age 16 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.He finished his master’s degree a year later in 1941 and completed his doctoral dissertation, “Multiple Integral Problems in Parametric Form in the Calculus of Variations,” in 1942. According to African Americans in Mathematics, he was the eighth African American to have received a Ph.D. in mathematics in the United States.

Also at U. of C, Mr. Wilkins was known as a Ping-Pong “shark,” according to a 1941 issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune. The table tennis champ won multiple university titles and took first at a state competition.In his early 20s, Mr. Wilkins returned to U. of C. working as a physicist on the Manhattan Project, the name given to the federal government’s secret plan to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. His efforts in nuclear reactor physics included discoveries known as the Wilkins effect and the Wigner-Wilkins spectrum.

As a mathematician, Mr. Wilkins worked for a number of companies across the country, including American Optical Co., United Nuclear Corp., General Atomic Corp. and EG&G. He also went back to school at New York University for a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering.“He was just an outstanding physicist and still in an era in which an African American would not necessarily be hired into the same universities and hired in the same positions,” said his niece Carolyn Wilkins, author of Damn Near White, a book about the Wilkins family. “He faced a certain amount of racism, but at the same time he also accomplished a great deal.”

Later in life, Mr. Wilkins mentored students as a distinguished professor of applied mathematics and mathematical physics at Howard University and later at Clark Atlanta University.Ronald Mickens, a distinguished professor at Clark Atlanta, said Mr. Wilkins would often stand outside Mickens’ classroom door, listen to his lectures and return later with a 20-page detailed mathematical summary for the two to discuss. “He was a very creative person,” Mickens said. “In whatever issue or problem he dealt with, he was able to bring a unique, creative way of resolving it.”

Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Wilkins became “a black first” in so many areas that everyone in the family stopped counting,” according to Damn Near White. He published more than 80 research papers, served as president of the American Nuclear Society and won multiple awards such as the National Association of Mathematics Lifetime Achievement Award. According to his son, Mr. Wilkins did not talk much about work at home — mostly because no one understood it. J. Ernest Wilkins III remembers throwing outrageous and complicated math questions at his dad, who would always grumble, “Who cares?”

However, later Mr. Wilkins would always return with the answer.
The last question the son asked his father was, “How many zeros are in a googleplex?” This time he never got an answer.
“He said, ‘I don’t care!’ ” the son recalled with a laugh. “That’s what I will miss most about Dad.”
Aside from his son, Mr. Wilkins is survived by his daughter Sharon Wilkins Hill, three grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.
Services have been held.

ObituaryChicago.com

http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/5259361-418/ernest-wilkins-jr.-worked-on-manhattan-project-died-at-age-87

Plutarch

I too feel ashamed that I didn't know about him either, though I blame my teachers and professors. He must've been some kind of genius. I hate those types. I wonder if he ever felt guilt or responsibility about the bombings of Japan because I know Albert Einstein did.

That irony you were talking about with the WWII black troops was definitely and sadly a commonplace. Joe Louis was hailed as the boxing hero of America when he fought and beat "? " Max Schmeling (who in my opinion was a greater man than Joe Louis himself). And he was a war hero who volunteered to raise money for the government. But what happened after his career? He was bankrupted by the IRS and lived his last years penniless, mentally deficient, and in a wheel chair. Truth sure is stranger than fiction.

Rest in peace to Dr. Wilkins Jr.

janklow

Plutarch wrote: »

But what happened after his career? He was bankrupted by his former manager and the IRS cut him no slack-

so i fixed up this part

Plutarch

Heh yeah I'm sure that's true. I stand corrected. Gambling and philanthropy hurt him too.