Frank Oppenheimer - Political Scrutiny and Blacklisting

Political Scrutiny and Blacklisting

On July 12, 1947 the Washington Times Herald reported that Oppenheimer had been a member of the Communist Party during the years 1937-1939. At first, he denied these reports, but later admitted they were true . In June 1949, as part of a larger investigation on the possible mishandling of "atomic secrets" during the war, he was called before the United States Congress House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Before the Committee, he testified that he and his wife had been members of the Communist Party for about three and a half years. In 1937 they had been involved in local attempts to desegregate the Pasadena public swimming pool, which was open to non-whites only on Wednesday, after which the pool was drained and the water replaced. Oppenheimer said he and his wife had joined at a time when they sought answers to the high unemployment experienced in the United States during the later part of the Great Depression. He refused to name others he knew to be members. This caused a media sensation — that J. Robert Oppenheimer's brother was an admitted former member of the Communist Party — and led to Frank resigning from his post at the University of Minnesota.

After being branded a Communist, Oppenheimer could no longer find work in physics. Frank and Jackie eventually sold one of the Van Gogh paintings he had inherited from his father, and with the money bought land in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and started life over again as cattle farmers, also briefly teaching science at Pagosa Springs High School. Under Oppenheimer's tutelage, several students from Pagosa Springs High School took first prize at the Colorado State Science Fair.

In 1957, the Red Scare had lessened to the point that Oppenheimer was allowed to teach science at a local high school. In two years, supported by endorsements by Hans Bethe, George Gamow and Victor Weisskopf, he was offered a position at the University of Colorado teaching physics, and it was there that he began to take an interest in developing improvements in science education. He was eventually awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop new pedagogical methods, which resulted in a "Library of Experiments" — nearly one hundred models of classical laboratory experiments which could be used in aiding the teaching of physics to elementary school children (Oppenheimer was the one who made the often-referenced quote "the best way to learn is to teach").