Theodore Rockwell Archives

NOTE: The Website button links to the OSU archives.

The Theodore Rockwell Papers at the Oregon State University include 28 cubic feet of material that document the life and career of Ted Rockwell. Rockwell was a member of the Manhattan Project, technical director for the U.S. Navy's nuclear propulsion initiative under Admiral H. G. Rickover, and co-founder of engineering firm MPR Associates, Inc. and nuclear advocacy group Radiation, Science, and Health, Inc. The collection includes correspondence, publications, research files, administrative documents, and memorabilia from his career. The collection also documents Rockwell's interest in parapsychology and includes extensive research materials on consciousness studies, telekinesis, dowsing, extraterrestrials, and other phenomena.

The collection is organized in the following:

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Correspondence, 1966-2011 (6 boxes)

Series 2: Biographical Records & Published Materials, 1931-2010

Series 3: Early Development of Nuclear Energy, 1940-2011

Series 4: U.S Navy, 1949-2012

Series 5: MPR Associates, Inc., 1963-2013

Series 6: Radiation, Science, and Health, Inc., 1981-2009

Series 7: Nuclear Power, 1915-2013

Series 8: Parapsychology, 1924-2011

Series 9: Electronic Records, 1945-2013

Of particular interest for Naval Reactors history:

Series 4: U.S Navy, 1949-2012 4 is comprised of materials relating to Rockwell's involvement in the development of the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered fleet from 1949-1964. The series includes design documents; correspondence, including letters from Admiral Rickover; technical reports authored by Rockwell; Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program Reports; materials from the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships (BuShips); and nuclear reactor case histories. The series also includes materials generated and collected by William Wegner and John W. Crawford, Jr., both members of Admiral Rickover's administrative team comprising professional correspondence, reports, speeches, and reference materials dating from their Navy careers, biographical sketches, and personal correspondence with Rockwell. Also included are subject files relating to the Sasebo, Japan contamination incident and the capture of German submarine U-234.

The series also contains extensive Navy memorabilia including invitations and programs from numerous Navy events such as keel layings, launchings, and decommissionings; promotional booklets and pamphlets; ship and shipyard newsletters; photographs; presskits; and documents provided to non-crewmen aboard ships. The collection also includes commemorative envelopes, or cachets, honoring Navy events and historical moments in ocean exploration and flight. Many envelopes were sent to Rockwell courtesy of Admiral Rickover and include letters from Rickover and other Navy personnel, photographs, and memorabilia. Vessels represented in the collection include the USS Enterprise, Nautilus, Sea Wolf, Skipjack, and Triton, among others.

The series also represents Rockwell's interest in the achievements of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover which culminated in The Rickover Effect, a 1992 biography of the Admiral published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press. The series includes correspondence, drafts, reviews, and promotion and publishing files relating to The Rickover Effect, an extensive collection of reports, newspaper clippings, publications, speeches, and correspondence reflecting the life and work of Admiral Rickover, documents from the PBS documentary Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power, and materials from an incomplete project concept to produce a motion picture film on the life of Rickover.

PREFERRED CITATION: Theodore Rockwell Papers (MSS Rockwell), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.