The State - News from June 10, 1987

The widow of Nobel laureate physicist Ernest Lawrence is seeking to have his name disassociated from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory because of its weapons research. Lawrence crusaded in the 1940s to develop the first nuclear weapon as World War II progressed. But Molly Lawrence said her husband was striving to end the war and to beat research efforts by Nazi scientists. Lawrence’s name was added to the laboratory 29 years ago by the University of California Board of Regents, shortly after he died. “I no longer feel the Livermore Lab is an appropriate memorial for him,” Mrs. Lawrence, 77, said recently. “It’s perpetuating the arms race, and keeping us in a state where we’re threatened with annihilation. . . .” At Mrs. Lawrence’s request, Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-Berkeley) has tacked the name change as an amendment to a military appropriations bill that has passed the House but awaits Senate approval.