Leslie Groves - Later Life

Later Life

Groves went on to become a vice president at Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm. He moved to Darien, Connecticut, in 1948. He retired from Sperry Rand in 1961. He also served as president of the West Point alumni organization, the Association of Graduates. He presented General of the Army Douglas MacArthur the Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1962, which was the occasion of MacArthur's famous Duty, Honor, Country speech to the United States Military Academy Corps of Cadets in 1962. In retirement, Groves wrote an account of the Manhattan Project entitled Now It Can Be Told, originally published in 1962. In 1964, he moved back to Washington, D.C.

Groves suffered a heart attack caused by chronic calcification of the aortic valve on 13 July 1970. He was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he died that night. A funeral service was held in the chapel at Fort Myer, Virginia, after which Groves was interred in Arlington National Cemetery next to his brother Allen, who had died of pneumonia in 1916. Groves is memorialized as the namesake of Leslie Groves Park along the Columbia River, not far from the Hanford Site in Richland.