Harwood (Maryland), Aug 27: John Lansdale Jr, Security and Intelligence Chief of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II, has died. He was 91.

Lansdale, who died Friday, also was instrumental in the development of the Alsos Mission, which shortly before the war's end located and removed the products of a German atomic bomb project.
Born January, 9, 1912, in Oakland, California, Lansdale graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1933 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School three years later. He worked for the Squire, Sanders & Dempsey law firm in Cleveland.
After the war, Lansdale returned to the firm as a partner until his retirement in 1987. He served on the city council for Shaker Heights, Ohio, from 1949 to 1963.
He married Metta Virginia Tomlinson in 1936, and they were wed for 65 years before her death in 2001.



Lansdale is survived by five daughters, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.


Bureau Report