Tennery, Victor

              
ORAL HISTORY OF VICTOR TENNERY
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
December 7, 2012
 
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is December 7th, 2012. And I am at the home of Mr. Vic Tennery here in Oak Ridge. Mr. Tennery, thank you for taking time to speak with us.
MR. TENNERY: Glad to help.
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's start at the beginning. Why don't you tell me about where you were born and raised and something about your family.
MR. TENNERY: Well, I was born in Paua, Illinois, 1932. I was born in my mother's home.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MR. TENNERY: My dad had worked on the railroad prior to the Depression, and he'd been laid off, so he was working the family farm. So that was my first several years living on the family farm. No electricity. That's the way it was. Farm with horses, and he was then going back to work. In 1940, we moved to Findlay, Illinois, and that's where I basically went to school and graduated from high school there in 1950. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Now did you have brothers and sisters?
MR. TENNERY: Have a half-brother. He was in World War II, served in Europe, bad experience. And he just passed away in fact last year. We were very close. I had many relatives in the farm area of Beecher City, and we had very close family relations in those days.  
MR. MCDANIEL: Now how old were you when you moved from Paua to Findlay, Illinois?
MR. TENNERY: Paua, Illinois, to the farm was only 30 miles. I was less than a year old. 
MR. MCDANIEL: That's right. 
MR. TENNERY: My first experience or memory was the farm, and I had a police dog named Tricks, and he was my playmate.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now how did you get the police dog? He retired from the police department?
MR. TENNERY: No, Dad had the dog from my uncle, so the dog and I grew up together, and there was never any worry about my safety with Tricks around. That was a great, great experience. We were bosom buddies. Never had a dog since.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Well, it's difficult here in town to have a dog. Started school in Beecher City, Illinois. No buses. You walked to school. Walked two miles each way to school every day. Rain, sleet, didn't matter. And that's what kids were expected to do at the time. Had some great teachers in school. I had lifetime friends in school. Those schools are all closed now. In Illinois, the farm families are gone, and that's what populated the schools in the small towns.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, when did you graduate high school?
MR. TENNERY: 1950, in Findlay, Illinois. And started at the University of Illinois that fall, and got a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering in '54. I'd been in the ROTC, so I got a Signal Corps Officer's Commission upon graduation, and the Army allowed me to get my master's degree before I went on active duty in the fall of '55. Great experience in the Signal Corps. Military life is far more difficult than most people realize.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really? So you went on active duty in '55.
MR. TENNERY: Yeah, got out in '57, served at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and the Signal Corps Research and Engineering Lab at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and I was offered a fellowship at the University of Illinois, so I got my PhD in June, '59.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what did you get your bachelor's and master's in?
MR. TENNERY: All my degrees are ceramic engineering. It's now called material science and engineering, and we and the discipline of metallurgical engineering have been merged together.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY:  Yeah, nationally.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now were you married?
MR. TENNERY: No, I didn't get married until '61. 
MR. MCDANIEL: So once you did your time in the service and you got out, you went and got your Ph.D. Correct?
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where did you get your Ph.D.?
MR. TENNERY: At the University of Illinois at Urbana. I worked a year on a special Air Force project, then went to Motorola in Phoenix for about two years. I was then offered a faculty at the University of Illinois and went back to Urbana and became a full professor in six years. I really enjoyed teaching at the university level.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, for six years? Okay. So at the end, what made you leave teaching?
MR. TENNERY: Well, a pretty difficult situation. I had to bring in research projects, do the research, organize and teach the classes, supervise graduate theses, and it was pretty stressful. I think it's still that way, even more so.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure it is.
MR. TENNERY: The summer of '58, I got a summer job here at Oak Ridge in the Metals and Ceramics Division, and it just was a great group of people, and so when I was interviewing for a job in '59, Dr. John Fry was head of the Division, and asked me to come down for an interview. So I did, but I was offered this position where I had worked the summer of 1958. However, I felt more comfortable working on these special oxidation protection coatings for alloys at Illinois. After a year I was offered a nice position by the Motorola Solid State Materials in Phoenix working on ferroelectrics and ferrites. Went out there for two years and was offered another position back in Urbana, and so I came there and made full professor in seven years, and left there in '68, came back to ORNL. 
MR. MCDANIEL: So you left Urbana and teaching in '68 and came to Oak Ridge.
MR. TENNERY:  Yes, moved the family down here, and we were working on ceramic nuclear fuels for fast and gas cooled reactors.
MR. MCDANIEL: At this point, you were married. You had children?
MR. TENNERY: Two girls, Regina and Carol.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you came down here, and you went to work at the Lab.
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: In the Materials Division?
MR. TENNERY: Metals and Ceramics Division.
MR. MCDANIEL: Metals and Ceramics Division.
MR. TENNERY: One of the biggest divisions of the Lab. They were really a great group of people.
MR. MCDANIEL: So what were you doing? What was your first project?
MR. TENNERY: Well, the first project was with NASA at the Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. NASA had a plan to put a five-megawatt reactor on the moon to supply power for a permanent moon base. Wasn't that an ambitious plan? And we were selected to develop the fuel, which was going to be uranium mononitride, and no one knew how to make that material pure enough to use enough and how to machine a very close tolerance. So I supervised and helped develop the processes to do that. We were also working on uranium and plutonium nitride for the AEC reactor programs.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now was that common knowledge that NASA was planning to put a reactor on the moon?
MR. TENNERY: It was at that time. It was to be a major NASA effort.
MR. MCDANIEL: At that time?
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: How long did that dream last?
MR. TENNERY: About two years, and I never did know what all the politics were about changing that.
MR. MCDANIEL: I would imagine that for that kind of project there were a lot of politics involved.
MR. TENNERY: Oh, yes. That was even before Apollo. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MR. TENNERY: But I think the idea of launching a reactor caused a lot of political problems, even though it hadn't been turned on.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So this was what year?
MR. TENNERY: This was in - 
MR. MCDANIEL: '68 to '70.
MR. TENNERY: '68, '69, '70.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now after that project - because I want to go through your work a little bit, and then I want to come back to your life in Oak Ridge.
MR. TENNERY: Well, another project that was big here was the Gas Cool Reactor program. ORNL had done pioneering work in the fuel development, the microsphere fuels, and I was involved in running a sizeable part of that project for two years on how to synthesize the fuel and how to put the tiny fuel particle into the graphite matrix that would hold the fuel. That was very exciting. Ray Wymer and several people in the Chem Tech Division were involved in that work. Really nice group of people. As an outgrowth of that work, George Wei, a super person and graduate of MIT, developed a special carbon based thermal insulation we called CBCF. It is on Mars today as a part of the plutonium oxide based power supply on Curiosity. 
About that time, we started to get some interest from ERDA, the predecessor to DOE in the area of industrial energy conservation. And one day, I got a phone call from Robert Anderson. Turned out he and I had taken physical chemistry together at Urbana in 1953. He was working at ERDA, and was starting development of what became the Office of Industrial Energy Conservation. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what was ERDA?
MR. TENNERY: Energy Research and Development Administration. It preceded DOE.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, I see.
MR. TENNERY: It was AEC, ERDA, then DOE. 
MR. MCDANIEL: DOE, the Department of Energy.
MR. TENNERY: Yes. And so anyway, I developed some proposals and got funding for the first energy conservation program here at ORNL in the area in industrial energy. The conservation program eventually grew to become a major part of the ORNL budget.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yes, that grew into several million dollars per year after a few years. Much later, like in the late ‘70s, there was interest by Mr. Al Chesnes at DOE headquarters in helping the automobile companies develop a gas turbine engine for vehicles. The Germans had been very active in this area for years, particularly Mercedes, and so one thing led to another, and I found there was an interest at headquarters in funding a new laboratory specifically oriented to helping industry accomplish this feat. So I conceived a plan, and finally they sold it, we sold it, and it became the High Temperature Materials Laboratory, started in 1981. We were funded for a $20 million building, plus $5 million for instruments, and about 40 staff. And it's been very successful. Probably over 1,000 industrial users, maybe 200 or 300 graduate students have been helped by the HTML since the first user agreement was signed in July 1987.
MR. MCDANIEL: At the Lab.
MR. TENNERY: Yes, in High Temperature Materials Lab.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MR. TENNERY: Its funding is apparently in jeopardy right now, but anyway, it served a good purpose in its time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. So you're kind of the guy who developed the concept and sold that.
MR. TENNERY: And was responsible for getting the building built with all the instrumentation and expert staff along with the able help of John Murray of the Engineering Division. So that was a nice experience. John Cathcart helped me greatly during this time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, sure.
MR. TENNERY: A major effort was to find very experienced people to run these centers and work with users. We had four user centers all focused on characterizing materials. And then we later developed a user center in the HTML with Y-12 through Fred Jones and his people in Development Division and developed a precision machining center, which we did, and it was pretty successful for about four or five years. Then these companies get their own machines, but at least they could come here and find out how to do very precise machining to structural ceramics such as engine valves and diesel fuel injectors, etc.
MR. MCDANIEL: How to do it.
MR. TENNERY: Exactly. That's right. And in fact, we helped develop the ceramic fuel injectors for diesels which has greatly increased the life of these heavy duty engines.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: They're basically used, as far as I know, in all the diesel truck engines today. It's a small ceramic cylinder in a precision tube. Amazing how those things work. 
MR. MCDANIEL: So after that project got going, what did you - 
MR. TENNERY: Well, it was 1992. I was also managing a large international project on structural ceramics for DOE. I started considering retirement, kept working on the HTML, and get approval for a HTML fellowship program, plus we had a couple of interesting new projects with the Department of Defense. In fact, the Department of Defense supports a huge amount of work at the Lab now. I just learned recently far bigger than the Lab's entire budget used to be.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MR. TENNERY: And so then I retired in December of '94.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well good. Let's go back to the beginning of when you first moved here to Oak Ridge, and you said that was '68. Correct?
MR. TENNERY: First time was '68, left in '72, came back in '74.
MR. MCDANIEL: When you first came in '68, you had your family with you. You had two girls, your wife. Where did you live?
MR. TENNERY: On Morningside Drive about two miles from here.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: And how old were your girls at that time?
MR. TENNERY: Let's see, Regina was born in '62 and Carol in '65.
MR. MCDANIEL: So they were pretty small.
MR. TENNERY: Yes. We moved here to Oak Ridge because of the great school system.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where did they go to school?
MR. TENNERY: Linden Elementary.
MR. MCDANIEL: Linden.
MR. TENNERY: Well, we first rented a house in Knoxville in an area that had the best elementary school in Knoxville, we were told. Regina had already gone through kindergarten in Champaign, Illinois, when I was teaching at the University of Illinois. We found the school wasn't quite what we thought it was, so we then in six months, in the spring of 1968, we bought a house here in Oak Ridge strictly because of the schools, and they were - during the girls' time at least, they were superior schools, excellent education.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Now did you and your wife - I know you were busy working, but did you all get involved in the community? I mean did you have activities that you did, or - 
MR. TENNERY: Well, yeah, Joyce was very involved with tennis, church, and the YWCA. She also worked with Mrs. Lea Crotinger at the YWCA. She was also a master quilter.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. I understand. Now you lived on Morningside Drive probably until you moved, and you came back in '74.
MR. TENNERY: We moved to Columbus, Ohio. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Now where did you live when you came back in ‘74?
MR. TENNERY: This house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, this house?
MR. TENNERY: We were the second owner.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you've been here on Newell Lane.
MR. TENNERY: A long time.
MR. MCDANIEL: A long, long time. 
MR. TENNERY: Forty years. It is a great neighborhood.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what made you decide to stay in Oak Ridge? I mean you moved around a lot before you came to Oak Ridge. I mean you did a lot of different things, I guess.
MR. TENNERY: The work environment at ORNL was really good, and the schools were excellent. We also were very active in our church.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MR. TENNERY: And it's a nice community. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Were your - I guess your daughters were involved in school activities and community organizations and things such as that.
MR. TENNERY: Yes. Later, Regina got her degree at UT in accounting. Carol went to VPI. 
MR. MCDANIEL: VPI, that's - 
MR. TENNERY: Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Now where are they now?
MR. TENNERY: Regina is in Brownsburg, Indiana. She and her husband run a complex of small businesses. Carol is a widow and lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and her oldest has just started college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Now you said you - your wife was real active in the YWCA and tennis and things such as that. Were you involved in anything locally? I mean outside of work. I know, you know - 
MR. TENNERY: No, I was on the road so much, and the job was pretty consuming. I was involved in professional societies, but not much here, except in our church. I also served as an ABET visitor for 15 years. ABET is the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. It is the national accrediting unit for all engineering education in the United States.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Now what was it like working at the Lab? What was the environment like, the interaction with folks, or interaction with - 
MR. TENNERY: After Dr. Fry retired, Jim Weir was head of the Division, and it was a very friendly environment, and very supportive. I was a group leader, and then a section head, and got a lot of support from Jim and his office. We were also very lucky to have Don Trauger as our Associate Director.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: And Don was a fine person. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. I guess you made a lot of friends.
MR. TENNERY: Oh, yes, at both ORNL and in my professional societies in the U.S., Germany, and Japan.
MR. MCDANIEL: I mean you know, a lot of good friends. 
MR. TENNERY: But it's kind of interesting, when you retire that slowly goes away.
MR. MCDANIEL: Does it really?
MR. TENNERY: Hard to maintain the personal connections.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, I guess you don't see everybody all the time, so it kind of falls away.
MR. TENNERY: I'm on the board of the Friends of ORNL and currently serve as the Treasurer, and I've made a new set of friends, but unless you're working with them, a lot of friendships just diffuse away, or they move away, or you know what. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly. What - talk a little bit about the difference between - let's talk about what you've done since you've retired. I mean what you've been involved in since you've retired.
MR. TENNERY: I mean I'm still involved in ASTM. I am still a charter member of Committee C-26, structural ceramics.
MR. MCDANIEL: Which is - 
MR. TENNERY: The American Society for Testing Materials. They issue the national standards for all sorts of subjects, materials, and processes. So I'm a founding member of the structural ceramics committee. So we have meetings once a year. We have standards to approve and deal with and change. I was very active with the American Ceramics Society and served a team as vice president. As I said earlier, I was on the board as a visitor for ABET, the National Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology for 15 years. I served one year on the commission, which is a senior board for Engineering and Technology education in the United States.  There's two sides. Engineering and Technology, and those university programs basically have to be approved by ABET every three years or so to be certified as meeting certain engineering educational standards. So I was active in that group for 15 years.
MR. MCDANIEL: So what have you done socially since you retired? Very much?
MR. TENNERY: Not very much. Frankly, Marlene is more active socially than I am, and Joyce was before she passed away. It's just hard to do that when you have been so busy at job all these years. Marlene is very active in the Oak Ridge Gardening Club. She's the official photographer, and they have three or four active social things a year, but I'm not involved in similar activities- men generally don't do that as much as women do. They don't have the social activities the women tend to have.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. How is Oak Ridge different now than it was when you first came here?
MR. TENNERY: Well, it hasn't changed a great deal from my perception. The traffic density is about the same. We do need more local businesses. We've got an absolutely beautiful road out west now. I ride a bike quite a bit and the new bike lanes are great.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, do you?
MR. TENNERY: Yes, I'm still trying to do 20 miles a week. I've kept a log since I started in 1980. No, it's 1982, I guess. Like a pilot's log. I have ridden about 12,500 miles now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: And how old are you now?
MR. TENNERY: I'll be 81 in June. Trying to maintain my health by exercise. This road has really nice bike lanes, and I just did an eight-mile ride two days ago. But anyway. I did do some social bike riding, like in competition, but I learned quickly that I wasn't up to that. Oak Ridge used to have the 50-mile ride and a 106 mile ride each spring, and I tried that once, and I only saw all the bikers when we started. Then they most all sped away. And pretty soon, it was I and two old guys. By the time we got back to town, the registration table was even gone. That was humiliating. I did get a badge though.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, that was an experience you'll remember.
MR. TENNERY: That's right.
MR. MCDANIEL: But it didn't keep you from continuing to ride.
MR. TENNERY: Well, it's a very nice thing for you, health-wise. I and many people have treadmills, but it's really hard to routinely use a treadmill. We were involved with Rush Center for two years, but it's just hard to do that routinely. There's even an apartment building out at the west end here, and I used to go ride around that. It's a quarter of a mile around that complex, but you just can't beat riding out in the country. You see some birds, interesting vehicles zooming by, nice clouds, etc.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. I mean I know you're cautious and everything, but it seems like every year or two or three, you know, bicyclists gets killed on the road.
MR. TENNERY: I’m very careful. I have a flashing light on the back, reflectors, watch that rearview mirror constantly, and have a new brilliant flashing headlight that is brilliant in full sunshine.
MR. MCDANIEL: Since you were involved in bike riding, have you been involved in any local efforts to make it safer or to provide bike lanes through the city?
MR. TENNERY: Well, I went to a few meetings about bike lanes, and I don't know whatever happened to that activity. But basically, it was a good idea, I thought. Oak Ridge has got some pretty tough hills. I used to ride up Normandy. I can't do that now. MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Yeah, that would be a tough hill to ride.
MR. TENNERY: It's fun going down. Got to keep your speed under 25 miles per hour or so. To me a bike gets a little spooky above 30 miles per hour.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, sure.
MR. TENNERY: You try to stay under 30 miles an hour, and that's pretty scary on a bike. But the new bikes are really nice. The shifters and all that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. And I guess the new road goes all the way out to K-25, basically. Now the road is really great for biking all the way to the interstate. That is about 11 miles from the west guard shack.
MR. TENNERY: Way beyond that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Way beyond that.
MR. TENNERY: All the way to the river, and then you've got the old road, and it's got a nice shoulder. As I said, it is 11 miles from the guard shack here to the intersection at the interstate. I used to ride that a couple times a week. A 22-mile ride. Now there's an interesting thing at the guard shack.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, talk about that.
MR. TENNERY:  I just noticed it the other day. I parked there at the guard shack, take my bike down on the truck, and start there. And the truck has an electric fob door lock-unlocker. Before I started on a ride, I found I couldn't lock the truck with the fob. I thought, “That's a strange thing. It failed yesterday.” So I locked the truck, went on a ride, came back, and if I got inside the truck, it would work. When I got home, it works perfectly. There's something strange about that guard shack. I have since observed that the fob does not work consistently if you are standing in the parking lot of that guard shack. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: I don't know what that is.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, maybe we need to investigate that just a little bit.
MR. TENNERY: I don't know. It's pretty strange.
MR. MCDANIEL: Maybe it's one of those secrets of the Secret City that's still a secret.
MR. TENNERY: There may be something really bad buried. I don't know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, we don't know about that. 
MR. TENNERY: Interesting observation.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Well, what else you want to talk about? We can talk about anything. This is mainly about you and your life. We talked some about your work, but also in the community.
MR. TENNERY: Well, I've had a lot of very good friends through working at the Lab. Of course, the kind of work I did allowed me to make many technical friends in the United States and in Europe and Japan. Probably in my later years, I'd be on the road two or three days a week. It was pleasant then. I refuse now to fly. The last time Marlene - Marlene's family is in Phoenix, we went to Phoenix, and they took my toothpaste. I said, “That's it.” I guess it's good for the country to have all that security, but I just don't like that. So one of the problems - situations I've noticed as you get older, the number of friends gets smaller. Of course, in an urban environment, normally you don't have any relatives close by, so you don't have that connection to maintain. By not living near relatives or where you grew up you lose all those connections. And I guess that's what's been bothering me a little bit personally. I don't know what you do about that. MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, but it wouldn't be just you if you're feeling that way. Oak Ridge has quickly become what they call a gray community. There are a lot of retired folks.
MR. TENNERY: I'm sure this is a social problem in this area, a social situation. I don't know what to do about that. I do have some acquaintances, who play bridge and so on. But years and years ago, Joyce and I played bridge when we lived in Ohio, and I never considered that relaxing.
MR. MCDANIEL: It's too stressful. Isn't it?
MR. TENNERY: It really is. Some of those senior women are pretty severe. And you know, I don't find that very relaxing. I used to enjoy target shooting. Years ago, I belonged to the Sportsmen's Club. When I was young, you just went out in the country and shot. I guess you're not supposed to do that now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Probably not.
MR. TENNERY: So I've gone to the armories a couple times over on Lovell Road, and there's a nice one just west of here now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, down near Kingston, between here and Kingston.
MR. TENNERY: It's about nine miles from here.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MR. TENNERY: A nice, new building. But the armory environment - I don't know if you've ever been in the armory environment. You've got these stations, and there's not much between you and the other folk, the people next door, and they're blowing these big cannons. Even with ear protection, it's pretty loud. I find that a little difficult. I just like to go out and shoot in the clay bank with targets. But I really haven't found a good place to do that. I just shot 22’s
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, there's not very - unless you go way out in the country, and then you don't know whose property it is, and things such as that.
MR. TENNERY: I've done a little bit down by the road, near the CRBR. 
MR. MCDANIEL: The CRBR.
MR. TENNERY: The Clinch River Breeder Reactor site along the river. It's probably going to come alive now for a small modular reactor. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. 
MR. TENNERY: There's a nice clay bank there. But I've gone there a few times. Probably some day, some guy will show up with a big badge, and I'll be in trouble. But that's a lot more relaxing to do it that way. Well, I have all 22 caliber. I have a rifle, a Remington model 12, 22 rifle, last made in 1936, a gift from a now departed uncle and Golden Manlin 39A that was my brothers. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MR. TENNERY: The Remington belonged to my mother's brother, my uncle. And I learned to hunt with it. Hunting my squirrels in Illinois with Dad was our togetherness activity each fall. Dad was a serious squirrel hunter, and he taught me squirrel hunting, which is very difficult. Those squirrel guys are smart. There's not much meat there either. So anyway, I learned to hunt squirrel with that rifle. Long ago, I gave it back to my uncle, and he became ill years later and knew he was terminal, so he insisted to my mother I get that rifle back. And I had it blued here in town 20 years ago. Looks like new. And I never fired it. So I always worried about would that thing fire. So I took it out a couple weeks ago, and it's very accurate. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, if it's a squirrel gun, you ought to be able to sit in your backyard and have a grand old time.
MR. TENNERY: I'd be down at the city building in no time.
MR. MCDANIEL: I know, if you could get away with it.
MR. TENNERY: I'd be at the city building in no time.
MR. MCDANIEL: You need to get one of those air pellet rifles.
MR. TENNERY: Well, I've got several air pistols and rifles.
MR. MCDANIEL: They are - I mean they're a couple hundred dollars, but they are accurate, and that's what I understand much of the military uses for training now.
MR. TENNERY: Yeah. I've got two pistols and two rifles that shoot BBs, CO2. Anyway, out gret squirrels are tough, then my brother passed away two years ago, and he had a Marlin 39A, which is a very nice lever reaction rifle. And I bought that from his daughter, and it's got a nice scope on it, so I've tried it a few times. It's extremely accurate. But I don't hunt anymore.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Talking a little bit about the graying of Oak Ridge, I imagine one of the benefits of that is it's always been kind of a hub of medical services. 
MR. TENNERY: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: I mean I would imagine that would be advantageous for the senior population.
MR. TENNERY: Well, for example, Marlene had a vision problem show up three weeks ago. We went to the ophthalmologist, and he said, “Boy, you need to see a retina specialist.” Bingo. In Oak Ridge, we’ve got a retina specialist. And he looked at it and took 400 pictures. The conclusion was it was probably getting better. Not many communities have retina specialists. I was riding my bike one day a year ago toward K-25. They were clearing the land then, and a contractor had pushed a tree over that leaned over the roadway. Tennesseans at that time threw their beer bottles out the window, so there was broken glass all along the side of the road, and with a “road” bike and skinny little tires that are very delicate. So I was watching for beer bottles, hit a tree limb, got knocked off the bike, and broke my left hip.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh my goodness.
MR. TENNERY: And there I was, laying on my back, looking at the sky just like I was resting, and I heard a voice. A guy said, “Are you okay?” And I looked up, and it was a guy in a truck. I said, “Yeah, I'm okay.” And I realized I couldn't move my left leg at all. So this nice guy who was a postman in Kingston got me in the truck, got my bike, took me to the hospital, and the next morning, I had an excellent orthopedic surgeon Dr. Clifford Posman replaced my left hip. Sixteen years and still working.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TENNERY: Has a special French ceramic ball in it, Zirconium oxide- a ceramic ball in a ceramic engineer- is poetic or what?
MR. MCDANIEL: Really? I bet that makes you proud. Doesn't it?
MR. TENNERY: Yes, it does. And you just don't find that in a lot of communities I don't think. I don't know, really.
MR. MCDANIEL: You don't. You really don't. I was interviewing Dr. Gene Caldwell this week, an old pediatrician, and he talked about Oak Ridge being really outside the metro area is the only place in the state that would have medical facilities like we have for the size of the community that we have.
MR. TENNERY: Is that right? Well, these medical experts and our schools are really our two major assets.
MR. MCDANIEL: Absolutely.
MR. TENNERY: Well, if you go every day down the Turnpike, and there's a - right across the street from the Philips station there's a medical building. That parking lot is solid every day. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, sure, exactly. The Physicians Plaza. The medical. Yeah, sure.
MR. TENNERY: Every day, hundreds of cars.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, absolutely. Well, is there anything else you want to talk about? 
MR. TENNERY: No. I guess I would reiterate that a big impact on my family's life has been the Oak Ridge schools. Regina had this excellent math teacher. I can't remember her name. She may be retired now. They learned differential calculus. I didn't have that until I was a sophomore at the university. Chemistry and so on. That's had a big influence on our lives. Daughter Carol had a similar experience.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure.
MR. TENNERY: I hope they get this distress, whatever it is between the school board and the city, resolved. School board has got to live within a certain budget. I don't know how you do that. But anyway, that's why we lived here, spent most of my life here some live somewhere else, but we had got a lot of good friends in this neighborhood. I even contemplated moving back to Findlay, Illinois once.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MR. TENNERY: But that wouldn't have been a good idea either.
MR. MCDANIEL: It's a lot colder up there than it is down here. Isn't it?
MR. TENNERY: Well, Findlay is now a little community of 500 people. There's no grocery store, no medical facilities, etc. There's a couple of restaurants. It became an active place in 1892 when they built the railroad. You were going to exist if you were on the railroad, and if you weren't, you wouldn't.  It was a great community when I grew up there in the ‘40s and 50’s
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. But you decided to stay in Oak Ridge.
MR. TENNERY: Yes, decided to because well, I didn't know what alternatives would be reasonable.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, exactly.
MR. TENNERY: I have some friends that moved to Florida and South Carolina. I don't know. When you get over about age 50, it gets a little difficult to think about learning a new place all over again. At least that's the way I feel. And of course, the tax situation in Tennessee is excellent compared to Illinois for example. Big difference.
MR. MCDANIEL: All right. Anything else?
MR. TENNERY: Well, I think that covers it pretty well. I just would like to say that in my time, the management at ORNL was very, very helpful. And I cherish that.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you feel like your career was - you accomplished something.
MR. TENNERY: Yes, we had a purpose, and there were national programs to do something about energy. That is sort of missing that now in my opinion. Except for the weapons program. I was never closely involved with the weapons program. We're supposedly going to have a national nuclear projects and the energy program. We don't have a national energy program. But anyway, whatever I did was - that work with the conservation program was interesting. You're working with industry, and they know what their goal is. It's to survive and make whatever product they made as economical and functional as possible.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you had a - and for your project, you had an end result. I mean you had an end goal that - 
MR. TENNERY: That's right.
MR. MCDANIEL: You know, it's not just pure research where you don't know what's going to happen. You know what you wanted to do.
MR. TENNERY: I really believe now that every engineering student at least - maybe chemistry and physics as well would have to take some educational time at industrial locations. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. 
MR. TENNERY: Not just get the money to do the national research and publish it in some paper that maybe nobody reads anyway.
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly.
MR. TENNERY: But that's just my opinion.
MR. MCDANIEL: All right, Mr. Tennery, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.
MR. TENNERY: Well, I'm pleased that you're interested.
MR. MCDANIEL: Thank you very much.

[End of Interview]

[Editor’s Note: This transcript has been edited at the request of Mr. Tennery. However, the corresponding video and audio remain unchanged.]