Heller, Joseph H., circa 1923-
Oral history interview with Joseph H. Heller, 2010 May 5.
Joseph H. Heller recounts his childhood recollections of Richard P. Feynman, whom he refers to as Richy, during the 1920s and up to 1935 in Far Rockaway, New York, and then the resumption of contact between the two in Los Angeles in the 1950s. Hellers older brother, Elmer, was a close friend of Feynmans; Feynman frequently spent time with the Heller brothers in their home. The reminiscences include Feynmans first wife, Arline Greenbaum, and the beginnings of her relationship to Richard Feynman. Heller recounts teaching Arline to row and Richard to play trap drums. He traces parallels in the paths of his brother and Feynman, both of whom he notes worked during World War II at Palmer Physical Laboratory in Princeton on the Manhattan Project and then subsequently taught at Cornell. He touches on the later brief relationship of Elmer Heller to Feynman in Los Angeles in the 1950s; relations of both brothers with Feynman tail off after Feynmans marriage to Gweneth Howarth [1960]. Discussion of some details surrounding illness and death of Arline Greenbaum [died 1945]. Heller recalls others from Far Rockaway High School social group: Harold Gast, David Leff, Buzzy Mann, Robert Stappler. Interview concludes with further anecdotes about childhood and high school years; Feynmans childhood names of Richy versus Ritty; and reference to a set of letters and documents given by Heller to the Caltech Archives from the papers of his deceased brother relating to Feynman.
Feynman, Arline, -1945
Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988
Heller, Elmer W., 1918-2009
Heller, Joseph H., circa 1923-
Cornell University
Princeton University
Princeton University. Palmer Physical Laboratory.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Erwin, Shelley interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
California Institute of Technology. Institute Archives. 1201 East California Blvd. (Mail Code 015A-74), Pasadena, CA 91125, USA