A Biography of Dr. John M. Googin - Y-12 National Security ...

When you first asked me to get together some information on John Googin
which might be of benefit in evaluating his value to Y-12, I was not very
enthusiastic about the assignment. In the first place, I figured that anybody
who worked in Y-12 and didn’t have such an evaluation in his own mind
was, to say the least, unperceptive. Secondly, I felt that John is loud
enough, imperious enough, and aggressive enough to state his own case.
Finally, I just didn’t know how to go about doing it . Googin has too many
facets, some of them controversial - most of them complex, to allow any sort
of simple analysis. I talked with some people and I thought a lot, and finally
as sort of a negative answer to my problem, I decided to question a sample
of his colleagues.
As it stands now, I’m glad I did, and furthermore I’m glad I had the assignment.
I feel that an excellent picture of Googin has been laboriously drawn
by the sum total of the answers I got. The picture had some surprises for
me, and I think it will for you, also. I still think it is not possible to draw
the picture in a few words — you have to study the data and the substance
of many individual statements to get it. I can, however, tell you of some of
my conclusions, all of which are open for argument, and they are as follows:
1) It seems I have always known that Googin has great breadth. One surprise
was to find that his depth, in both facts and understanding
throughout this great breadth, is equally impressive.
2) His capacity for accepting a great number of consulting contacts and his
high percentage of specific and immediately applicable answers is larger
that I had given him credit for.
3) Too many people use Googin for a crutch to avoid the unappetizing parts
of research such as literature searches. They also use his consultation
instead of their own guts to bolster their conclusions.
FYI 18