Leland John Haworth, 1904-1979
LELAND j. HAWORTH will be remembered as a master builder of research facilities, a foremost scientific administrator, and, above all, as a man of exceptional integrity and selflessness. His professional career, extending over almost fifty years, started during the depression of the thirties. Over the years it included teaching and research in academia; wartime research, development, and administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, and later at Brookhaven National Laboratory; and governmental service to science, first as a commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission and then as director of the National Science Foundation. The name of Haworth is synonymous with the meticulous care and concern with which he approached the work at hand. His traits of objectivity, attention to detail, and sensitivity to the problems and concerns of others influenced all who worked with him. The organizations in which he played an important part have been left with a Haworth tradition, and they are the better for it.
Upon joining Brookhaven, Haworth was immediately immersed in the ongoing design and construction of the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor (BGRR) and the planning for a major accelerator for high-energy physics research. In spite of many difficulties associated with the construction of the reactor, it took only three years from groundbreaking to criticality, including one year devoted to correction of a design error. Haworth's attention to detail brought the project around and won the confidence of the sponsoring agency.