This work chronicles the role of the author’s grandfather, Charles Allen Thomas, in the production of polonium during World War II. In 1944, the estate in Dayton, Ohio owned by Thomas’ mother-in-law, “Runnymede Playhouse,” was partially transformed into a laboratory for polonium production. Polonium is necessary to trigger an atomic bomb. Thomas was the director of research for Monsanto Chemical Company and also coordinated all of the Manhattan Project’s chemical activities. The narrative highlights the contributions the chemical industry made in the development of nuclear weapons.