Celia Klemski
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Celia Klemski
| birth_name =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|05|17}}
| birth_place = Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, United States
| othername =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2016|10|24|1919|05|17}}
| death_place = Greenfield Senior Living
| occupation = Secretary
| yearsactive =
| spouse =
}}
Celia Szapka Klemski (May 17, 1919 – October 24, 2016) was a secretary for the State Department and the Manhattan Project. She was featured in The Girls of Atomic City.{{Cite web |title=Celia Szapka Klemski - Nuclear Museum |url=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/celia-szapka-klemski/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241003114024/https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/celia-szapka-klemski/ |archive-date=2024-10-03 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Atomic Heritage Foundation |language=en-US}}
Early life and career
Celia Klemski was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania on May 17, 1919. Her father was a coal miner.{{Cite web |date=2013-03-22 |title=Adventurous, Patriotic 'Girls of Atomic City' Traveled South for Nuclear Jobs |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/in-the-girls-of-atomic |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250307221257/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/in-the-girls-of-atomic] |archive-date=2025-03-07 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=PBS News |language=en-us}}
In 1938, Klemski moved to Washington, District of Columbia to work as a secretary for the State Department. In 1942, Klemski moved to New York City to work as a secretary for the Manhattan Project.{{Cite news |title=Secretly Working To Win The War In 'Atomic City' |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/03/03/172908135/secretly-working-to-win-the-war-in-atomic-city |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240927002030/https://www.npr.org/2013/03/03/172908135/secretly-working-to-win-the-war-in-atomic-city |archive-date=2024-09-27 |access-date=2025-03-07 |work=NPR |language=en}} In 1943, Klemski moved to Oak Ridge, only being told it was a secret city. Klemski worked at the administrative headquarters of the Manhattan Project, called Site X, taking encoded and unencoded orders from generals.{{Cite web |last=Kiernan |first=Denise |date=2023-07-17 |title=The Young Women Who Unknowingly Helped Create the Atomic Bomb |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/oppenheimer-manhattan-project-world-war-ii-women-oak-ridge-atomic-bomb-1234788186/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928184209/https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/oppenheimer-manhattan-project-world-war-ii-women-oak-ridge-atomic-bomb-1234788186/ |archive-date=2023-09-28 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} Klemski's first boss was Colonel Vanderbook.{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |date=February 25, 2013 |title=Secretly Working To Win The War In 'Atomic City' |url=https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/172908135/secretly-working-to-win-the-war-in-atomic-city |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250307221837/https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/172908135/secretly-working-to-win-the-war-in-atomic-city |archive-date=2025-03-07 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=NCPR}} At one point Klemski took an order from a person people in the office called "G. G.", being General Leslie Groves. Despite working closely with high-ranking people, Klemski didn't know what Site X was doing, only that it helped with the war effort. Two of her brothers were in the military and she wanted to "do her part to bring them home."
She died on October 24, 2016.
References
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Category:People from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania
Category:Manhattan Project people
Category:Women on the Manhattan Project
Category:20th-century United States government officials
Category:21st-century United States government officials