At the time, it seemed a relatively unremarkable errand: pick up the 1960 Dunning Trust lecturer from his Kingston hotel and deliver him to a dinner at Medical House, the residence and social club for Queen鈥檚 medical students that was founded in 1933.
Sure, the lecturer was notable. Six years before, he鈥檇 fallen afoul of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy鈥檚 communist witch-hunt because of his left-leaning politics and been stripped of his U.S. government security clearance.
Oh, and nine years before that he played a central role in ending the Second World War and launched the nuclear age.
But for Lloyd Zbar, Meds鈥64, picking up Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bomb, 鈥渨as just a practical thing to do.鈥
Dr. Oppenheimer had arrived on campus to deliver the Dunning Trust Lectures, an annual event endowed in 1946 to honour former Queen鈥檚 Chancellor Charles Avery Dunning. During the few days of his visit to Queen鈥檚, Dr. Oppenheimer would deliver three lectures to overflow crowds at Grant Hall: 鈥淜nowledge as Science;鈥 鈥淜nowledge as Action;鈥 and 鈥淜nowledge as Culture.鈥
The visiting dignitary had also accepted a dinner invitation from the students at Meds House and it fell to Dr. Zbar to act as chauffeur. He got the gig, he figures, 鈥渂ecause, one, I was an American; and, two, I had a car.鈥 That may also have been the year he was social convener at Meds House. Sixty-three years later, he鈥檚 not entirely sure.
Dr. Zbar had followed his father and aunt to Queen鈥檚. So, there he was that evening, driving his 鈥58 Chevy with the 鈥渇ather of the atomic bomb鈥 riding shotgun. It seemed little more than an obligation then but has taken on significance with the passing decades, says Dr. Zbar, a retired ear, nose, and throat and head and neck surgeon.
鈥淭hat was a touch of celebrity, wasn鈥檛 it?鈥 he says, adding that the recent release of the acclaimed biopic Oppenheimer has brought the episode to mind again.
鈥淚 can tell you that his reception at Medical House was very polite, very well attended, and in contrast to today, there were no demonstrations nor caterwauling nor signs of affection.鈥
A polite campus reception for as polarizing a public figure as Robert Oppenheimer seems remarkable these days, but Dr. Zbar says it was not for nothing that he and his cohorts, born in the turmoil of the Great Depression and the Second World War, were dubbed the Silent Generation.
But it was also a generation known to place high importance on being respectful 鈥 something Dr. Zbar recalls about the visit to this day.