Manfred Bowditch to Vandiver Brown on the Death of Leroy Gardner (1946)

A short letter of October 24, 1946, from Manfred Bowditch, field director of the Saranac Laboratory, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, on the laboratory's letterhead. Bowditch writes that Dr. Leroy Gardner, the laboratory's director, "died early this morning of a coronary embolism" and that services would be on Saturday. The letter is stamped "Noted V.B."

What it shows

Gardner had been running the asbestos dust experiments that J-M and other companies paid for under their 1936 agreement, and he died before writing his final report. Others at Saranac and Dr. Anthony Lanza of Metropolitan Life took up the work of finishing it (see the January 1947 meeting at J-M headquarters). Bowditch, who signed this letter, became the industry's main contact at the laboratory in the months that followed.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Death of Leroy Gardner on 10/24/46. Notice in November 4, Time magazine. Bowditch becomes Acting Director until Vorwald assumes control. Lynch, Vorwald, and Lanza take over study and task of drafting final report.

Editor's note: J-M's description mentions a notice in Time magazine and says Bowditch became acting director and Lynch, Vorwald and Lanza took over the study. None of this is in this file, a one-page letter from Bowditch reporting Gardner's death.