Leslie Groves (1896-1970) was the officer in the United States Army Corps of Engineers who directed the Manhattan Project (atom bomb) during World War II.

Leslie Richard Groves was born in Albany, New York, on August 17, 1896, the son of Leslie Richard Groves, a chaplain in the United States Army, and Gwen Griffith Groves. Given his father's army career, Groves could call no one place home. He entered the University of Washington in 1913 while his father was stationed at a post in Seattle, transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the following year, and in 1916 gained an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. In November 1918 Groves graduated, fourth in his class, under an accelerated program instituted during World War I. Commissioned too late to see combat in France, Groves joined the Army Corps of Engineers as a second lieutenant and completed the basic and civil engineering courses at...