Peter Oppenheimer: Is J. Robert Oppenheimer’s son alive?

Peter Oppenheimer is the son of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Peter Oppenheimer’s father was a theoretical physicist and the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. He is often credited as the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project—the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. Where is Oppenheimer’s son now?

Peter Oppenheimer: Bio Summary

Who is Oppenheimer’s son?

Oppenheimer’s son Peter Oppenheimer was born on May 12, 1941, in California, United States of America. He is the son of  J. physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his wife Biologist Katherine Oppenheimer Vissering. He is not the only child of the couple, he had a sibling- a sister-  Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer. Peter moved with his parents to Los Alamos when his father became the Director of the Manhattan Project. Most of his childhood was spent in Princeton, New Jersey during the period that his father was the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study.

ALSO, READ; Katherine Oppenheimer: What happened to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife?

Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing took place just before Peter started high school which took a toll on the young Peter. Per sources, a schoolmate told Peter that his father was a communist- This made him angry and lead him to write an angry message on a chalkboard in his room. The message read: “The American Government is unfair to accuse Certain People that I know of being unfair to them. Since this is true, I think that Certain People, and may I say, only Certain People in the U.S. Government, should go to HELL.”

Per sources, Peter Oppenheimer often avoided social interaction as a child which contributed to him never excelling in school. Aside from that he had engineering dexterity with his hands just like his paternal uncle Frank, however, that did help him do well in school.

In an effort to help him excel, Peter’s parents sent him to George School, an elite Quaker boarding school in Newtown, Pennsylvania, but his grades didn’t improve that much and he was unable to graduate from George School, instead, he finished at the public Princeton High School. After high school, he spent some time with his uncle, Frank Oppenheimer, at his ranch in Colorado.

Peter Oppenheimer and his mother Kitty were seldom on good terms

Robert Oppenheimer’s secretary, Verna Hobson, claimed that “Robert thought that in their highly charged, passionate falling in love, that Peter had come too soon, and Kitty resented him for that.” However, some sources also stated Kitty Oppenheimer later told his friend Anne Wilson that she got the physicist to marry her the “old-fashioned way”—by getting pregnant.

Robert Oppenheimer’s secretary was something of a surrogate mother to his first son, Peter, given the troubled relationship between him and his mother Kitty. There are accounts of Kitty putting immense pressure on Peter, on issues ranging from his weight to his grades. Hobson observed that “she used to make Peter’s life just miserable.” By most accounts, Peter was very much loved by his father.

ALSO, READ; Katherine “Toni” Oppenheimer Silber: Oppenheimer’s daughter committed Suicide

Talking about his parents, Peter Oppenheimer once revealed to historian Priscilla McMillan that “my father’s tragedy was not that he lost his clearance, but my mother’s slow descent into alcoholism. Cut that word slow.” Peter who is now also a parent has been very positive about his father and mother- that his children are often taken aback by media portrayals of Kitty Oppenheimer as cruel and unrelenting.

Where is Peter Oppenheimer now?

Is Oppenheimer’s son still alive? Robert Oppenheimer’s son Peter is still alive. He is 81 years old as of 2023. According to IMDB, he is credited with Doctor Atomic (2007) and Bloomberg Wall Street Week (2020). Soon after the death of his father in 1967, Peter Oppenheimer permanently moved to rural northern New Mexico. He lives at the Perro Caliente ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that his father purchased decades earlier. Peter works as a carpenter and now has three adult children, Dorothy Oppenheimer, Charlie Oppenheimer, and Ella Oppenheimer. He lives contently in seclusion.