Donald Francis Mastick (September 1, 1920 – September 8, 2007) was an American chemist who worked at the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Los Alamos Laboratory The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...

. As part of

Project Alberta Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was a section of the Manhattan Project which assisted in delivering the first nuclear weapons in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Project Alberta was formed in March 1 ...

, he was part of the planning and preparation for the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He later worked for the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory and the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1971, he founded his own interior landscape company, Foliage Plant Systems.

Early life

Donald Francis Mastick was born in

St. Helena, California St. Helena ( ; Wappo language, Wappo: ''Anakotanoma'') is a city in Napa County, California, Napa County, in the Wine Country of California. Located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the ...

, the son of Spencer Mastick and his wife Frankie Hite. He grew up in the

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

. He entered the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he studied chemistry, graduating with his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in 1942. He was a member of the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

and

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

honor societies.

Manhattan Project

By the time Mastick graduated, the United States had entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Mastick was studying radioactive carbon. He told Professor Wendell Latimer that he could not stand by while there was a war on, and that he was leaving. Latimer suggested that he instead join a secret project, which would lead to a commission in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. He introduced him to

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

, who recruited him for the

. Initially, Mastick's job was to draw up lists of equipment required by the chemistry laboratories at the

, which were then under construction. Mastick moved to Los Alamos early in 1943, where he worked in the Chemistry Division and studied the mysterious chemical properties of

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...

, a synthetic element then available only in microscopic quantities. Although young, he was a member of the group that planned the laboratory's scientific program, along with Robert Wilson,

Robert Serber Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Serber's lectures explaining the basic principles and goals of the project were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific st ...

, John Williams and

Edwin McMillan Edwin Mattison McMillan (September 18, 1907 – September 7, 1991) was an American physicist credited with being the first-ever to produce a transuranium element, neptunium. For this, he shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seab ...

. On August 1, 1944, Mastick and his laboratory partner,

Arthur Wahl Arthur Charles Wahl (September 8, 1917 – March 6, 2006) was an American chemist who, as a doctoral student of Glenn T. Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley, first isolated plutonium in February 1941.plutonium chloride dissolved in an acid solution when the vial exploded. Gases had built up in the vial overnight, most likely through the

dissociation Dissociation, in the wide sense of the word, is an act of disuniting or separating a complex object into parts. Dissociation may also refer to: * Dissociation (chemistry), general process in which molecules or ionic compounds (complexes, or salts ...

of water molecules due to

alpha radiation Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle (helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or 'decays' into a different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and an at ...

from the plutonium. Mastick tasted some of the acid in his mouth, so he knew that he had ingested some plutonium. Mastick replaced the vial in its wooden container, and went to see Dr. Louis Hempelmann, the Director of the Health Group at Los Alamos. Hempelmann phoned Colonel Stafford L. Warren, the Manhattan Project's medical director, at the

Clinton Engineer Works The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, as well as the first examples of reactor-produced pluton ...

in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Project Alberta

Mastick's face was scrubbed, but his skin remained contaminated with a microgram of plutonium. Hempelmann gave him a mouthwash of

trisodium citrate Trisodium citrate has the chemical formula of Na3C6H5O7. It is sometimes referred to simply as "sodium citrate", though sodium citrate can refer to any of the three sodium salts of citric acid. It possesses a saline, mildly tart flavor, and is a ...

, which would combine with the plutonium to form a soluble liquid, and sodium bicarbonate, which would make it solid again. This removed most of the plutonium. Nonetheless, for days afterwards his breath could make the needle on an

ionization chamber The ionization chamber is the simplest type of gas-filled radiation detector, and is widely used for the detection and measurement of certain types of ionizing radiation, including X-rays, gamma rays, and beta particles. Conventionally, the term ...

go off the scale, even from away. Hempelmann used a stomach pump to retrieve plutonium that had been swallowed, which recovered about 60 nanograms of plutonium.

Urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and in many other animals. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder. Urination results in urine being excreted from the body through the urethra. Cellular ...

assays indicated that less than 1 microgram remained in his body. Some was still detectable 30 years later. Unable to work in the Chemistry Division any more because of the accident, Mastick suggested to Oppenheimer that he become an assistant to Commander

Frederick Ashworth Frederick Lincoln "Dick" Ashworth (24 January 1912 – 3 December 2005) was a United States Navy officer who served as the weaponeer on the B-29 '' Bockscar'' that dropped a Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945 during Worl ...

. Mastick initially served as Ashworth's administrative assistant, but soon became involved in the drop-testing of

pumpkin bomb Pumpkin bombs were conventional aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II. It was a close replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb with the same ballistic an ...

s in the

Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf ...

Silverplate Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop a ...

modifications to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress to carry nuclear weapons, and modifications to the casing and tail configurations of the bombs themselves. He also investigated the inadvertent dropping of

Little Boy "Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...

due to a faulty electrical circuit. Mastick was commissioned as an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

in June 1945. Five days later he headed to

Tinian Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the ...

as part of

. For his part in the

, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. After the war ended he participated in the

Operation Crossroads Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the ...

nuclear tests at

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Seco ...

. He left the Navy with the rank of

lieutenant (junior grade) Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies. United States Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), ...

Post-war

Mastick returned to the University of California, where he earned his PhD in 1950, writing his thesis on ''A study of gaseous oxides at high temperatures''. He became the head of the Radiochemical Research section at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory San Francisco. In 1951 he joined the Atomic Energy Commission, as a scientific advisor and the manager of the Division of Military Applications. He then became Vice President and Director of Precision Technology at General Precision Equipment. In 1957, he joined

Stauffer Chemical Stauffer Chemical Company was an American chemical company which manufactured herbicides and pesticides for various agricultural crops. It was acquired by Imperial Chemical Industries from Chesebrough-Pond's Inc. in 1987. In 1987, Stauffer's head ...

as its Director of Research. He married Irene Pietrusiak, and they had a daughter, Patricia. In 1971, they started an interior landscape company, Foliage Plant Systems. Initially located in

Saddle River, New Jersey Saddle River is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located just over northwest of Manhattan. The town is known for its natural fields, farmland, forests, and rivers, and has a bucolic atmos ...

, the business subsequently expanded into seven states, and earned accolades including one presented by Nancy Reagan at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Mastick died in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

, on September 8, 2007.

Notes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mastick, Donald F. 1920 births 2007 deaths Manhattan Project people American chemists University of California, Berkeley alumni People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki United States Navy personnel of World War II Victims of radiological poisoning