World War II Database

US Army Major Robert Ralph Furman joined Colonel Leslie Groves as one of the general's staff officers in the Pentagon construction project. Now a major, he was brought along by Groves, now a general, when Groves was given charge of the Manhattan Project, the American attempt for the atomic bomb. During the project, Furman was placed in charge of monitoring German progression on their own efforts to obtain the atomic bomb. Suddenly, the Princeton University-trained civil engineer became an intelligence chief, overseeing a team of physicists who analyzed evidences of German research, a team of spies who kidnapped German physicists, and a team of commandos who seized German uranium samples in Belgium under sniper fire.

Furman passed away on 14 Oct 2008 in his home in Adamstown, Maryland, United States at the age of 93 from metastatic melanoma, a skin cancer.

For more information:

New York Times: R. R. Furman, 93, Dies; Led Bomb-Project Spying
Scientific American: Robert Furman, atom bomb spy leader, dead at 93
WW2DB: The Manhattan Project