 The man was Robert Oppenheimer, a professor from the University of California at Berkeley, establishing a new, secret laboratory for the Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to build an atomic bomb. McKibbin became the first permanent employee of the Manhattan Project's Santa Fe office, which opened at 109 East Palace Avenue on March 27, 1943. The office had just five rooms, all purposely small so they could be easily heated in winter with small fireplaces. Joe Stephenson handled housing; Duane Muncy, the comptroller from the University of California was business manager; Dana Mitchell, a chemistry professor from Columbia University was in charge of scientific supplies. Oppenheimer was in charge, assisted by his secretary, Priscilla Greene. When Edward Condon and his secretary Isabel Bemis arrived from Berkeley, they had to be squeezed in. Greene bought a typewriter in Santa Fe with her own money. McKibbin's salary was $ 150 per month. Initially Stephenson paid it out of petty cash. She subsequently was made an employee of the University of California.
