Tronolone, Nicholas

              
ORAL HISTORY OF NICHOLAS TRONOLONE
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
December 4, 2013
 
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel and today is December 5, 2013 [December 4, 2013], and I am at the home of Mr. Nick Tronolone here in Knoxville. Nick, thank you for taking time to talk with us.
MR. TRONOLONE: My pleasure.
MR. MCDANIEL: This is about you. This is about your life and that's what this project is about. Kind of get the story of you and your life and how it relates to Oak Ridge. So, let's start at the beginning. Tell me where you were born and raised and something about your family.
MR. TRONOLONE: I was born and raised in a very conventional family in Northern New Jersey. For that area, it was a small town called Palisade or now Fort Lee. It was a suburb of New York City where my father was working. He would commute every day from the city. I lived there until I graduated from college.
MR. MCDANIEL: What year were you born?
MR. TRONOLONE: I was born in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression.
MR. MCDANIEL: You were a Depression baby.
MR. TRONOLONE: That's correct.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did your father do?
MR. TRONOLONE: My father was in the motion picture laboratory business. He started in that business almost when the industry started. The motion picture industry was actually centered in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the time. Movies were made there and finally when the climate and opportunity arose, the industry then moved to Hollywood. The laboratory work remained in the eastern area.
MR. MCDANIEL: So the processing and development of the film...
MR. TRONOLONE: The processing and distribution, yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did he do? Do you know exactly what he did?
MR. TRONOLONE: He was in charge of laboratories. He built laboratories both in this country and in foreign countries. This is before and after World War I. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Do you remember the name of the company he worked for?
MR. TRONOLONE:  The first one there in Fort Lee was called Consolidated Film Laboratories. He was a foreman in the processing. Later, he worked for Pathe Labs which was an offspring of the French company, and finally, in his last years, he was a consultant in the production of motion pictures news broadcasts which then morphed into the television broadcasts.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, what about your mother? Was she a homemaker or did she work outside the home.
MR. TRONOLONE: My mother was a homemaker. They met when they both worked at Consolidated. She never worked after that - after they got married.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you have brothers or sisters?
MR. TRONOLONE: I had one sister who was five years younger than I. We were both born at the house in New Jersey.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really? No hospital?
MR. TRONOLONE: No hospital. There was a doctor in attendance but no hospital.
MR. MCDANIEL: How did the Depression affect your father and your family?
MR. TRONOLONE: To be honest with you, I don't think me or my sister knew there was a depression. Dad worked full-time, all the time. He actually worked until the middle '50s before he retired.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you grew up there in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Did you go to high school there?
MR. TRONOLONE: Went to grammar school and the junior/senior high school and graduated from the high school in 1947.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you graduated in '47 and then what did you do?
MR. TRONOLONE: I went to college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where did you go and what did you study?
MR. TRONOLONE: I was very fortunate at the time to be accepted to Duke University, which I'm very proud of.
MR. MCDANIEL: What was your degree? What did you study?
MR. TRONOLONE: I studied mechanical engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was that something you were always interested in or did you just kind of fall into it?
MR. TRONOLONE: I think probably more or less fell into it by my father's urging. A lot of the people he worked with, in the film industry, were engineers or had engineering backgrounds.
MR. MCDANIEL: And he knew that would be a good job to have. Always be a demand for that.
MR. TRONOLONE: That's true.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you went to North Carolina and graduated from Duke.
MR. TRONOLONE: Graduated from Duke in 1951 and came straight to Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me about that how did you end up in Oak Ridge? Did they recruit you or had you heard about Oak Ridge?
MR. TRONOLONE: I wish I could remember the gentleman's name who made a recruiting visit to the University and I was interviewed at the time. Rierson! Rierson, I'm pretty sure that's correct. He was recruiting at Duke.
MR. MCDANIEL: I think I've heard his name before from somebody else who was recruited by him.
MR. TRONOLONE: Okay.
MR. MCDANIEL: So he came to Duke and was looking for workers.
MR. TRONOLONE: To interview, yes. So I filled out the job application and  - actually before graduation, I was hired.
MR. MCDANIEL: And that was '51?
MR. TRONOLONE: 1951, June the 25th. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Were you married at the time?
MR. TRONOLONE: Got married the last few months of college. A girl from high school.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really? So, you moved to Oak Ridge. Tell me about Oak Ridge in 1951. What was it like?
MR. TRONOLONE: Oak Ridge, by 1951, had come a long way since the days of wooden sidewalks and mud. Housing was tight and Veronica, my wife, and I were finally assigned an E-1 apartment on Viking Road. We lived there for several years. It was convenient. Walking to stores or driving to stores. Oak Ridge was open to the public at the time. The gates had come down. It was a very interesting town in that there was one supermarket. An A&P Supermarket in Jackson Square. There were several drug stores. Williams Drug Store in Jackson Square, which is still there today.  A couple of movie theaters and a population of - I don't recall the numbers - but a population of highly educated, very intelligent people who were working in the three plants that were existing at the time.
MR. MCDANIEL: By '51, the population had gone down to around to the upper 20,000’s or so.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was in that range.
MR. MCDANIEL: And a lot of the people had left so a lot of the services weren't there like there was during the war. I would imagine that this was the first time you ever lived in a small town after going from Fort Lee, well that area, to Duke to Oak Ridge.
MR. TRONOLONE: Well, for that area of New Jersey, Fort Lee was a small town. Population very similar to what you just quoted there for the population of Oak Ridge. We found Oak Ridge a wonderful place to start our married life. Employment at Y-12 was a very fortunate experience in that Y-12 was just then beginning to awaken from the shut-down of the electromagnetic process which was replaced by the gaseous diffusion enrichment process. But Oak Ridge was a very interesting town. Just the street namings. The street alphabetical arrangements and those types of nuances were very different and very interesting to us at the time.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure.
MR. TRONOLONE: Some of the local customs we had to get used to. I'll never forget my wife one time walked to the store and the service clerk asked her if she wanted a "poke". Poke was a word not familiar to us. But we learned.
MR. MCDANIEL: I would imagine Oak Ridge, at that time for young people, was a good place to be.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was. It was a very good place to be. Educational opportunities were all around us.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Exactly.
MR. TRONOLONE: Now here comes my cat.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's okay.
MR. TRONOLONE: Can I take a break to let her out?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Just grab the receiver and take it with you.
MR. TRONOLONE:  Indoor, outdoor and she rules.
MR. MCDANIEL: We've got three that are indoor, outdoor so I understand. So, did you have children while you were in Oak Ridge?
MR. TRONOLONE: Two of our children were born in Oak Ridge. The third one was born here in Knoxville.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. What was community life like? I'm going to talk about your work here in a little bit, but as far as you and your side, did you - were there clubs that you joined, were there things that you did socializing? What was it like in the fifties?
MR. TRONOLONE: I find that difficult to answer. I would say that we did not get too involved in the social life there in Oak Ridge. We had a very interesting couple that lived next door to us in the E-2 apartment on Viking Road. It was Georgia and Jeb Washington. They were both Cherokee indians - full blooded Cherokees. As a matter of fact, Jeb's - I think it was his great-grandfather was Tsali, who sacrificed his life for the Cherokees at the time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MR. TRONOLONE: So, that was interesting. And we had several other neighbors. Some worked at K-25. Some worked at Y-12. There were a couple that were there for the schooling at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. They lived in the E-2 unit. Those three apartments - they were three stacked up there and nothing in between them except gravel - driveways and parking areas. It was close enough to St. Mary's Church that I could walk to church on Sunday mornings.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's not too far. That was a good location. It was close to everything.
MR. TRONOLONE: Close to everything. As a matter of fact we lived there when the first stores opened at the mall. As I remember, the first store to open there was that A&P - nah, I take that back. I don't really remember.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's alright. That's okay. So, how long did you stay at the apartment on Viking?
MR. TRONOLONE: We stayed there just a couple of years and then moved to another one on the East end of town on Fairview Lane. Then when our first child was born, we moved from there to a rental home on the west end on Bryn Mawr Circle. I can't remember who was building the homes but it was a two bedroom, small home, cozy. We lived there three of four years before we moved to Knoxville. As a matter of fact, our second child was born there.
MR. MCDANIEL: What year did you move to Knoxville?
MR. TRONOLONE: We moved to Knoxville - to West Knoxville, West Hills - in 1956.
MR. MCDANIEL: Why did you move to Knoxville? Just curious.
MR. TRONOLONE: That period was - I think it was through the Atomic Energy Commission at the time - was beginning to sell the homes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. 1956. That's when it was.
MR. TRONOLONE: We, being newcomers and living in apartments, just felt maybe we didn't have access to purchasing the homes for the very reasonable prices that most people did.
MR. MCDANIEL: Because most people that were living in those homes, they had the first choice.
MR. TRONOLONE: They had a priority to buy their home. So, we decided we would shop around and we wound up in West Hills in Knoxville.
MR. MCDANIEL: I live on Bradley. That's where I live on Bradley Avenue which is right over near Bryn Mawr Circle.
MR. TRONOLONE: Oh, really?
MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, it's just like one street over.
MR. TRONOLONE: Well, you know that neighborhood then?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, absolutely. Bradley is the last street that connects Robertsville to the Turnpike. Right at the end of Robertsville.
MR. TRONOLONE: As I remember, you turned off the Turnpike and turned on the Bradley and then went around to get to Bryn Mawr.
MR. MCDANIEL: You turned off to Bradley to Butler and then the circle.
MR. TRONOLONE: Who built those homes?
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it Mel Sturm? I know there was a Sturm...
MR. TRONOLONE: I know that the development had a name.
MR. MCDANIEL: I think it was Mel Sturm who owned Sturm's Youth World in Oak Ridge. A little shop there in the shopping center. I could be wrong about that. I know he had a little estates called Sturm Estates and I'm thinking it was right there but I'm not completely sure. I interviewed him a couple of years ago as well.
MR. TRONOLONE: Let me back up just a minute. By the time we came to Oak Ridge in 1951, it was a city. It was a city subsisting on its own with all paved streets, water, sewage, sidewalks. There were none of the wartime relics left there except for some of the buildings, the dormitories and some of the warehouses that were built to support both of the projects actually. But with Y-12 being so close to Oak Ridge, you saw more of the leftover from the construction era.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So, when you came to Oak Ridge in '51, did you go to work at Y-12?
MR. TRONOLONE: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: So tell me about that. Tell me about going to Y-12 for the first time and the people and the experience of Y-12.
MR. TRONOLONE: When we first came, I think I indicated that the housing was pretty tight because they had done away with so much.  We lived in the Etherton's Motel on Clinton Highway for I guess a month or six weeks before we were able to get housing in Oak Ridge. So that was a long commute and kind of boring days for my wife.
MR. MCDANIEL: Kind of out in the middle of nowhere.
MR. TRONOLONE: That was one of the things that struck us also was the diversity and the not being totally built up area. Both of us being from that area of New Jersey and familiar with New York City where everything is right together. So, going to work was interesting. It was a pleasant drive. Parked at the North Portal, which everybody knows. Walked down the engineering building - 9739. I can remember these numbers. I was working for a man by the name of Gus Angele. I think everybody in town knew him or if they didn't know him, he knew them by one reason or the other. It was a very interesting introduction to the plant. My job assignments took me to areas of the plant that a lot of my coworkers had never been to, had never seen. I worked in that capacity for three years as I recall. And then was very fortunate to be transferred to Y-12 utilities. Y-12 utilities would be very difficult to explain to anyone.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's okay.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was plant infrastructure. Environmental controls, cooling tower operations, compressed air plants, handling of all kinds of gasses, steam generation. We did everything.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's what I was about to say. That would be a lot of different types of things that you had to deal with.
MR. TRONOLONE: Everyday was a new experience. There were no two days that were ever alike.
MR. MCDANIEL: I want to ask you about those first three years. You mentioned that you went to places that many of your co-workers had never been at the plant. Was part of your work maybe some of the decommissioning of some of the wartime work?
MR. TRONOLONE: No, Y-12 was expanding at the time. The 9212 area started out as A, B, C wings. Then there was A1, A2. It was expanding at the time. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Were these classified areas that you were in? (bell rings) Is that your door? Go ahead and get it if you need to.
[Break in Video]
MR. MCDANIEL: So, anyway, we were talking about ...
MR. TRONOLONE: Y-12 was expanding and accommodating these expansions involved a lot of different areas. As a matter of fact, one thing that awakened Y-12 at the time, was X-10 or ORNL's need for additional space.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MR. TRONOLONE: It was about the same time that the Biology Complex was evolving with Dr. Hollander. That involved all kinds of interesting work for me in engineering - matter of fact, everybody in the plant. That was those first two or three years. Also at that time, was the beginning of the Lithium process.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, I see.
MR. TRONOLONE: Now, this was a magnificent project for Y-12, at the time. The first building that was converted from electromagnetic to the Lithium process was Beta 4 - 9204-4. That was the ELEX process.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, they were doing the ELEX process there. Wasn't there a COLEX process going on at the same time?
MR. TRONOLONE: COLEX process was in development at the time. At the time I transferred from engineering to utilities, was the beginning of the COLEX construction in Alpha 4 and Alpha 5.
MR. MCDANIEL: Tell me real quickly, so people will understand what we are talking about, what was the Lithium process? What was the purpose of that?
MR. TRONOLONE: It was to enrich…
MR. MCDANIEL: It was for enrichment purposes wasn't it?
MR. TRONOLONE: It was the enrichment of the Lithium isotope to enhance the yield for the hydrogen weapons. That's about all I know about it.
MR. MCDANIEL: I understand.
MR. TRONOLONE: I was in the thick of it with the utilities and, to this day, the only thing I know about the process was that it generated hydrogen, it used a lot of mercury, which is still a problem, and ...
MR. MCDANIEL: And it was a big deal.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was a tremendous deal.
MR. MCDANIEL: It was a big project.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was a tremendous deal. Our utilities, we furnished the cooling water, we furnished the steam, we took care of the compressed air that was needed in the proper process controls, all the ventilation that was required for the buildings, heating. Air conditioning was unheard of at the time.
MR. MCDANIEL: But I would imagine that something like that was a huge project for you and for people like you who were working on it. I mean, there were so many different things that had to be considered, wasn't there?
MR. TRONOLONE: Yeah, it was. There so many parts of the utilities that had to be functioning before the process could take hold. They needed compressed air, they needed cooling water, and they needed some of the other things that were managed by utilities. My first assignment was training with nine newly-hired employees - at the time, termed utility operators - and to this day, I give those nine people credit for establishing a utilities department that was functional and capable and attentive to their duties and to their responsibilities and contributing to the success of the program - in those two buildings especially. They were just wonderful people to work with.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really? So, how many people there in your department that were working on different things on the utilities?
MR. TRONOLONE: Utilities overall? I guess there were - now when I say this I am talking about the entire plant - there were probably 50 people. John Murray was Plant Superintendent. Dan Radar was in charge of Utilities and Shift Superintendents and he had a manager for the utilities - a gentleman by the name of Steve Porter.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MR. TRONOLONE: And, if John Murray had researched the entire United States, he could not have found two better people. Union Carbide was a very paternalistic corporation. MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MR. TRONOLONE: Radar and Porter both were  - the people were important, the people were important. Their managing of the utilities and its growth was just amazing. The first line supervisor in utilities was a man by the name of R. P. Mann and I felt like he probably never received the credit he should have received for the way he handled the overall generation of utilities and the expansion of utilities as the plant grew.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MR. TRONOLONE: The COLEX process was a crash program. Now, a crash program, under John Murray, was unlimited personnel, unlimited money. From the Department of Defense.
MR. MCDANIEL:  Sure, exactly.
MR. TRONOLONE: We worked utility operations were around the clock. The operators worked rotating shifts. I worked whatever I felt necessary to keep things in order and do my job. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MR. TRONOLONE:  The crash program - this was always interesting to me - was such that when construction was doing the installation work of the cooling towers - this is just an example - they had so many electricians wiring the motors, they couldn't face up to their work, they had to work sideways. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TRONOLONE: When they got a pump ready, they checked it for rotation. If the rotation is correct, that pump stayed on the line. It never got shutdown. It was tagged for Union Carbide operation and it never got shutdown. We were right there with them, at the time. And that's where I give those nine operators just absolute total credit for what they did and the way they performed.
MR. MCDANIEL: How many other mechanical engineers were there in the utilities department, besides you?
MR. TRONOLONE: The only other one was Ray Mann.
MR. MCDANIEL: I see.
MR. TRONOLONE: It was a small group at the time. They worked rotating shifts. The supervisors were E. Robertson, Clay Jarvis, Columbus Cox, and J.D.T. Olliver.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's alright. 
MR. TRONOLONE: Those were the four rotating shift supervisors. And of course they worked closely with the plant Shift Superintendent.
MR. MCDANIEL: What time frame was this? What year?
MR. TRONOLONE: I'm speaking of 1953 morphing into 1954.
MR. MCDANIEL: This is when you were living in Oak Ridge?
MR. TRONOLONE: Yes, at that time.
MR. MCDANIEL: The reason that it was such a crash program and so important to the national defense was because the Cold War was really just kind of getting going, wasn't it?
MR. TRONOLONE: Yes. Exactly. I don't know, the truth of it is, but I heard that Russia already had the weapon.
MR. MCDANIEL: That process?
MR. TRONOLONE: That process, and we were playing catch up.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So, after that project, did you stay in the utilities?
MR. TRONOLONE: I stayed in utilities from then until 1972, 1973, somewhere in that range.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, did you?
MR. TRONOLONE: After the process settled down, I was transferred - no not transferred - but I was reassigned. I eventually became a general foreman in utilities for the entire plant. I guess we had probably 80 utility operators working the four rotating shifts.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you became in charge of it all, didn't you?
MR. TRONOLONE: More or less.
MR. MCDANIEL: At least you were responsible for it all weren't you?
MR. TRONOLONE: Of course, from there on Y-12 continued to grow and expand. That process was eventually shut down.
MR. MCDANIEL: There were other things that came along.
MR. TRONOLONE: That's when Jack Case kind of took hold of things and the plant was shifted from chemical process to machining.
MR. MCDANIEL: That's what I was about to say. It became more of a highly refined machine shop.
MR. TRONOLONE: Oh, gosh yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: And I'm sure that transitioning from chemical to machining was a big job for your department as well wasn't it?
MR. TRONOLONE: Thankfully I had a group in utilities that was very adept at planning outages that kept this part of the plant running while this part of the plant was being modified. That was our biggest task.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. But I would imagine the whole operation of Y-12 required a lot of power, a lot of resources, utility resources to do what it had to do.
MR. TRONOLONE: Yep. It sure did. We made our own nitrogen. We bought oxygen, argonne, helium, hydrogen. And all those services were distributed throughout the plant pipeline distribution systems.
MR. MCDANIEL: The good thing about your department that was different from some of the other departments would be that as long as Y-12 was operating you weren't losing funding for your department. Whereas some of the other things would shut down. They lost funding they would have to go find something else to do.
MR. TRONOLONE: Bob Schabot and I used to tease each other that when they shut down Y-12, we were going to turn out the lights. 
MR. MCDANIEL: There you go.
MR. TRONOLONE: That we were going to be the last ones there to turn out the lights.
MR. MCDANIEL: There's a fella that I interviewed and I can't remember his name, when K-25 first started the cascade project, he was the one who turned the knob or flipped the switch and, when they shut it down, they brought him back to turn the knob and turn it off. And he's actually got a plaque that has a handle or a lever or something that he turned it off.
MR. TRONOLONE: I was at K-25 when that shut down.
MR. MCDANIEL: I think his name was Carpenter. I can't remember. But anyway, I interviewed him.
MR. TRONOLONE: I bet he had some stories.
MR. MCDANIEL: He did. So, did you work at Y-12 the rest of your career?
MR. TRONOLONE: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: You said until '72. Is that correct?
MR. TRONOLONE: There were a lot of intervening years there but in 1972, I transferred to engineering at K-25. I was doing work for a gentleman by the name of Oran, Bob Oran. Bob Oran, Sr. Junior is still around. He had a group called engineering mechanics and it was primarily piping design. Piping and associated type equipment. I had some very interesting projects while I was there. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MR. TRONOLONE: This was sort of in the middle; I'm not sure but it was near the end of the SIP and CUP programs at K-25 for the expansion. 
MR. MCDANIEL: The huge expansion project.
MR. TRONOLONE: Along with the process expansion, there came a lot of utility expansions. We converted the air plant, nitrogen plant, the water clarifiers. It was part of an expansion to the end that you just mentioned, when they turned the switch.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly. Which was what, about '85 or so? I think '85 or '86.
MR. TRONOLONE: I think it was about then. I can't really remember.
MR. MCDANIEL: How long were you at K-25?
MR. TRONOLONE: About 10 years. Then I came back to Y-12 in engineering design and retired in 1992. 41 years and 5 days.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? What was the difference like - so you were gone to K-25 for 10 years and came back - how were things different at Y-12 when you came back from that 10 years?
MR. TRONOLONE: It hadn't changed very much.
MR. MCDANIEL: Had it not? I guess there was a new operator - a new contractor then wasn't there?
MR. TRONOLONE: I didn't have much contact with the utility people at this time.
MR. MCDANIEL: I meant the operating contractor like Carbide. 
MR. TRONOLONE: Oh my gosh.
MR. MCDANIEL: Carbide was gone by then, weren't they? Lockheed or Martin Marietta one came along. 
MR. TRONOLONE: Was there anybody in-between there?
MR. MCDANIEL: Was it Lockheed Martin?
MR. TRONOLONE: Yeah, and then became Martin Marietta. I retired from Martin Marietta.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. 
MR. TRONOLONE: And at the same time the AEC morphed to ERDA...
MR. MCDANIEL: And then DOE.
MR. TRONOLONE: Right. So, that all changed.
MR. MCDANIEL: I interviewed a guy the other day that was an electrician at K-25 for forty something years and he loved Union Carbide but he didn't like the others. He didn't like them at all. It was obvious.
MR. TRONOLONE: I can understand. As I indicated before, Union Carbide was very paternalistic. If your father worked for Union Carbide, you probably did also.
MR. MCDANIEL: And they - seemed to care about their employees.
MR. TRONOLONE: Absolutely. Absolutely.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you retired you said in '94?
MR. TRONOLONE: 1992.
MR. MCDANIEL: '92.
MR. TRONOLONE: 41 years and 5 days.
MR. MCDANIEL: When you first came to Oak Ridge in 1951, did you imagine being here that long? 
MR. TRONOLONE: I find that difficult to answer because I never thought about going anywhere else.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MR. TRONOLONE: I guess it was just a carry-over from Union Carbide or maybe just a sign of the times, but people didn't flip from job to job. We stayed put and I consider myself very fortunate in that my three or four major job assignments made it like I was employed at different companies.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MR. TRONOLONE: To go from engineering design, utility operation and one of the biggest parts of my career at utilities - which I did not mention before - was I got a real dose of how a steam plant is put together, how it operates and what keeps it ticking. We generated steam for the entire plant. The primary reason they built this new steam plant was the COLEX process. Matter of fact there's a gentleman - John Griffith - lives right down below me here. He told me not too long ago, he knew me before he met me. 
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MR. TRONOLONE: He was on the startup crew for the new steam plant. The steam plant was located right across the street from Alpha 4, and while we were starting up the utilities, he said he got tired of hearing "Nick Tronolone call CCR. Nick Tronolone call CCR." So he said he know me before he met me. It was hectic. I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world.
MR. MCDANIEL: I would imagine over 40 years and 5 days you worked a long time with some people and you got to know people pretty well and probably made some really good friends during the time there, didn't you?
MR. TRONOLONE: Unfortunately, I don't see much of them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, I understand.
MR. TRONOLONE: The utility people have a breakfast the first Tuesday of every even numbered month.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MR. TRONOLONE: But, it falls on a Tuesday and Tuesday is my volunteer day. I don't attend except very occasionally. I see these people and Doug Kelly or Tom Surratt will say, "That's so and so". I don't even recognize them anymore.
MR. MCDANIEL: Man these guys have gotten old, haven't they?
MR. TRONOLONE: Exactly. It's a well-attended event, that breakfast. They meet at Shoney's and fill that back room, Shoney's loves it, I'm sure.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure they do. What else do you want to tell me? Do you have anything else you want to talk about?
MR. TRONOLONE: Well, after I retired, people asked me if I missed working and I said yes, I miss working and I miss the people, but I've never looked back. One thing I'd like to mention is a couple more people that I think contributed immensely.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MR. TRONOLONE: I mentioned Murray, Radar and Porter. There's Ken Bernander. Within my concise utility group there was a gentleman but the name of Jack Finchum. Lonnie Wright, Doug Kelly. All these people contributed immensely to the success of not necessarily the utilities but to the success of the entire Y-12 program or programs as they evolved. Unfortunately, so many have already passed on.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, in retirement, are you fairly active? Do you do lots of things?
MR. TRONOLONE: No. I only do that one volunteer thing. Well, I used to teach a class in boating for the Power Squadron. I'm still part of the Power Squadron but I don't teach anymore classes. They found better people.
MR. MCDANIEL: I understand. Well, thank you so much Nick for taking time to talk with me and share something about your life and your work and family in Oak Ridge.
MR. TRONOLONE: Keith, I don't know what I've contributed, but I want to thank you and the COROH organization for this opportunity. I appreciate it.
MR. MCDANIEL: It's our pleasure. Thank you so much.

[End of Interview]

[Editor’s Note: Portions of this transcript have been edited at Mr. Tronolone’s request. The corresponding audio and video components have remained unchanged.]