Matt Podoll
I did a small job for John at his beautiful red brick Belmont home in the hills some years ago - he was over 90 then and I just remember him having a permanent smile on his face. He wanted to help me fix a broken trim tile on his circular driveway that a car had hit and broken. He got down on his hands and knees and worked with me! I knew he was special. He told me of twice in his life when he was exposed to a deadly amount of radiation. He told me of the time at Los Alamos when he ended up in the hospital for days with internal bleeding. I remember him explaining about a string that they were using to activate the reaction at the "the source" during a test broke, and he was the guy who went to tie it together and was exposed to a heavy dose. He smiled and said "it should have killed me." I called him or stopped by his house every so often to say hello because he made such an impact on me. The last time I tried to get in contact with him I was told he had passed away, I was sad but I knew he had had a wonderful life. - Matt Podoll 650-218-7371