Russell A. Kimes

Below is the obituary is for Russell Kimes, also below are photographs and documents related to his service.

Russell A. Kimes, a vice president of the American Machine and Foundry Company, died Wednesday night at the Albert Einstein Hospital, the Bronx, at the age of 51.

He had suffered a heart attack while driving his automobile on the Whitestone Bridge, had stopped his car and had been taken to the hospital, where he died shortly afterward.

Mr. Kimes lived on Canoe Hill Road, New Canaan, Conn. His office was on Forest Place, Greenwich, Conn. He was assistant group executive of the company's advanced products group. This group manufactures weapons systems, nuclear reactors and other products. Mr. Kimes played a leading role in the company's recent completion of the Titan and Atlas missile launcher programs.

He was born in Philadelphia and graduated in 1934 with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology.

Served MacArthur in Pacific

Mr. Kimes was employed by the Western Electric Company from 1934 until he entered the Army in World War II as a second lieutenant. He served as director of signal supplies at General Southwest Pacific Headquarters under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Mr. Kimes rose to lieutenant colonel and received the Legion of Merit.

In 1946 he joined American Machine and Foundry at its Buffalo plant as assistant works manager. In that position he helped to organize the program for the production and servicing of the first group of the company’s atomic bomb machines.

Two years later Mr. Kimes came to the New York office as director of overseas project contracts. He was in charge of the complete design, layout and equipment of a $12,000,000 plant to produce cigars and cigarettes in Turkey.

In 1954 he was assistant manager of the large-scale design program of the Atomic Energy Commission’s $2,000,000 Savannah River plant in South Carolina. The next year, when the project reached its maximum operating level, he was promoted to its manager.

Led Greenwich Laboratories

At the completion of the nuclear design project in 1954, Mr. Kimes was made general manager of the company’s research and engineering laboratories in Greenwich, Conn. There he directed nuclear and space development programs of the company's advanced weapons systems group.

He was promoted in 1959 to colonel.