J. Robert Oppenheimer: From Hero to Outcast

Attorney Oak Dowling will present clips from “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” a 2009 PBS American Experience documentary. Although he will be discussing the current 2023 blockbuster movie and comparing it to the PBS program, clips from the 2023 movie Oppenheimer will not be presented.   

During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appointed physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spent years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work came to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witnessed the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history. 

Oppenheimer’s story continues as he struggles with remorse but not regret for his invention, the stripping of his federal security clearance by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the rumors about his left leaning tendencies and the antagonism between he and Louis Strauss, a fellow Jew and the chairman of the AEC. 

Oak Dowling, JD, is a retired attorney with 43 years of practice. He’s a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison Law School and a native of Chicago. He was a part-time Instructor of Law at College of Marin and has been an Instructor in the OLLI program at Dominican University for 13 years.  In his law classes, he uses courtroom drama to demonstrate legal principles.  

Oak has lived in Marin County for 50 years and was happily married for 61 years.  He has been a member of the Marin County Financial Abuse Specialist Team (“FAST”) and was selected as Outstanding Marin County Volunteer of the Year for 2012-2013. As an avocation, he has performed in theatre in Marin and San Francisco for 15 years.