Meet Hugh Bellas
Hugh Bellas had been talking in careful, measured tones. Gently, but with authority, he had chronicled his life as a scientist of no small stature and of his faith. Hugh, 94, had paused occasionally to take in his thoughts and the oil painting gracing the opposite wall, a strikingly dark scene of a Philadelphia river neighborhood that looked like it had been born on the brush of Cezanne.
But to the next question there was no hesitation and the words came quickly:
“I’m well aware of that situation. But my faith is very close to me. All my life
I have reasoned about this thing and that thing. But I believe that science is
the science of God’s world. It took Jesus Christ to bring us around to the point
where we can believe and still work in Science.
“I can’t say I never had doubts because I did. But I know what my mother used to
sing: ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’.”
And there you have Hugh Bellas, a St. Peter’s parishioner for 18 years.
A mechanical engineer and nuclear scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project
that developed the world’s first nuclear bomb. A connoisseur of classical music
and art. A past national president of the Episcopal Church’s Brotherhood of St.
Andrew. The quiet, alert and smiling man who receives the host and wine from
Father Russ from his usual seat midway up the south set of pews.
Hugh was born and raised in West Philadelphia. He still retains the manners and
bearing of that portion of the city known for society and education. His father,
Hugh Edwin Bellas, was English and a successful lawyer in the publishing fields.
His mother, Emily Roescher, was the daughter of German immigrants.
“My mother was very much a church person,” Hugh recalls. “She sang soprano in
the church choir. My dad was probably even more of an influence because he was
very active in the Episcopal Church, particularly with men’s issues. He was a
leader of the St. Andrew’s Brotherhood, which also became my principle
interest.” (The Brotherhood of St. Andrew is the oldest evangelistic
ministry of the Episcopal Church. It is dedicated to bringing men and boys to
Jesus Christ focusing on the three disciplines of prayer, study and service.)
The family took its Christian responsibilities seriously. Hugh remembers going
to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital with his parents to visit and provide comfort
for patients during World War One. On one occasion they were mistakenly taken to
the hospital’s flu ward during an epidemic and all three contracted the illness.
Hugh passed up a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania’s law school to
take one offered by the university in chemical engineering. He graduated at the
top of his class in 1933. His experiences were not limited to the classrooms and
laboratories. He was active in the university’s engineering society and
Episcopal Chapel and mentored neighborhood boys.
“After I graduated I decided to go with DuPont because I heard they were good to
work for,” he smiles. Hugh smiles and laughs a lot during the interview,
especially when he understates something. In this case, DuPont WAS a good fit.
He stayed with the company for 44 years. What he did for DuPont and, in
extension for the country, is astonishing. He developed a non-toxic form
of DDT and, later, was instrumental in the development of RDX, a plastic
explosive (try saying Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine three times). He developed a
new means of more safely mixing compounds for TNT.
Hugh’s life took a different turn on April 1, 1942 when DuPont sent him to the
University of Chicago.
“There were already some DuPont people there,” he says quietly. “One of them put
a small metal cube, no more than an inch across, in my hand and asked me if I
knew what it was. It was Uranium. I quickly switched hats and became a nuclear
engineer.”
And quite a nuclear engineer. He joined the elite corps of the nation’s
scientists forming the Manhattan Project with the goal of developing the first
atomic bomb. He was made section chief of a group of scientists working on the
engineering aspects of Plutonium conversion. After Chicago, he worked at the Oak
Ridge, Tennessee laboratory and at the Hanford, Washington facility. He later
moved on to work on the development of solid rocket fuel.
When the interviewer interrupts to interject a silly comment (“You always seemed
to have been around things that go boom!”) Hugh responds with his trademark slow
laugh and responds: “And sometimes worse than just boom!”
Things that blow up and a lifetime dedicated to Christ have not worked against
each other. After some reflection Hugh recalls that many of the scientists he
has known during his long life were also dedicated Christians.
“At the University of Chicago I lived with Dr. Arthur Compton.” (Compton
was a brilliant physicist who won the Nobel Prize for that discipline. A crater
on our moon is named for him. He is also known as the author of a book on
science and religion. As a young man he had been torn between becoming a
scientist or a missionary. He concluded that to be one was to be the other.
Compton famously wrote: “There is something of a non-physical nature which
controls the action of the atom”.)
Hugh married Mary Wickes in 1947. They had a daughter (Betsy Stewart) who urged
them to come to Kansas City from Philadelphia in 1983, six years after Hugh’s
retirement. Alzheimer’s took Mary in 2000.
They had been living in Raymore’s Foxwood Springs Living Center. Helen was one
of Mary’s good friends and, as Hugh dealt with his grief, the two became aware
of their attraction for each other.
“She is the light of my life,” says Hugh slowly as he looks across the room to
her. “We were two people who needed each other.”
Helen smiles and looks down. “I had been a widow for 18 years,” she says. “My
life was the exact opposite of Hugh’s. I grew up poor and on a farm. I never
thought I’d marry again. He’s a good, Christian man.”
Hugh continues to smile but he says nothing. His eyes seem to mist a little.
Hugh and Helen alternate Sundays between St. Peter’s and Raymore Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) where Helen attended before they were married. In
2002 Father Russ married the couple at the Raymore church, which is within
walking distance of Foxwood.
Today Hugh, who suffered a stroke three years ago, no longer pursues past
passions like golf and sailing but he remains an avid fan of classical music and
art. And, of course, there are the two pillars of his long and remarkable life.
On the end table next his chair is a pile of delivered mail. In it is a
religious publication and a copy of a magazine titled “Computational Fluid
Dynamics.”
Note: Hugh Bellas passed away on March 14, 2008.
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