Where are J. Robert Oppenheimer's children now?
By WILLIAM KENNEDY
History - Science
Content Warning
This story contains discussions of suicide.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was more than “the father of the atomic bomb.” He was the father of Peter and Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer, who he had with his wife, Kitty.
Unlike his father, Peter never excelled in academia and worked as a carpenter. He has three children and lives on the Perro Caliente ranch in New Mexico that his father purchased.
Though loving, most accounts suggest that Robert never fully connected with either of his children, and both struggled to cope with his aloofness and their mother’s alcoholism.
Conversely, Oppenheimer's daughter, Toni, was a good student who obtained a B.A. from Oberlin College.
Unfortunately, her father’s alleged Communist sympathies hurt Toni professionally, costing her a job as a translator for the United Nations.
Toni isolated herself in later years at the home her father built on St. John’s island until her death by suicide shortly after her 33rd birthday and second divorce.