J. F. D. Rohrbach to Vandiver Brown Asking for a Brief Report from Gardner Within Sixty Days (1946)

Raybestos-Manhattan's unsigned file copy of a one-page letter of August 23, 1946, from J. F. D. Rohrbach, its executive vice president and treasurer, to Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville. Rohrbach thanked Brown for following up with Dr. Gardner but said he still believed "the industry is entitled to some brief report," and that if none came within the next sixty days, "we will not get anything from Dr. Gardner for many months to come." If Gardner's mind was "fairly well made up," he could give that opinion quickly without reviewing his whole file.

What it shows

Rohrbach was answering Gardner's letter of August 15, which Vandiver Brown had sent him. Earlier that month Thomas L. Gatke of Gatke Corporation had urged Rohrbach to insist on a report built on Gardner's preliminary findings and without "possibilities of cancer" (letter of August 12, 1946). Gardner died on October 24, 1946, two months after this letter, with the report unwritten.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

States that the asbestos industry is entitled to see a brief report from Dr. Gardner within the next 60 days. Gardner has stated his own mind is made up so he should be able to give that opinion quickly without review of his entire file. States that putting the matter off will only complicate the situation.

Related documents

• Leroy U. Gardner to Vandiver Brown on the Delay in His Final Asbestosis Report (1946)
• Vandiver Brown to J. F. D. Rohrbach Enclosing Gardner's Reply on the Asbestos Dust Experiments (1946)
• J. F. D. Rohrbach to Vandiver Brown Asking Gardner for Simple Conclusions in Advance (1946)
• Thomas L. Gatke to J. F. D. Rohrbach on Getting Gardner's Report (1946)

About this copy

This is document 05630 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.