Robert Ralph Furman ’37

He was born in Trenton, N.J., and attended Trenton High School. At Princeton he majored in civil engineering and was an officer of the Princeton Engineering Society.

After Princeton Bob worked as an engineer with Turner Construction Co. He enlisted in the Army and helped supervise the construction of the Pentagon. As an Army major he was assigned to Gen. Leslie Groves’ staff and later was put in charge of foreign intelligence for the atomic bomb project. He often joined harrowing espionage missions to kidnap German scientists and to seize uranium ore in Europe. Known as the “Mysterious Major,” his name did not appear in official documents for decades. Much of his work with the Army was cloaked in secrecy.  

One of his Army assignments was to determine the extent of Nazi efforts to build the bomb. Later he was assigned to escort half of the uranium to Tinian Island and was onboard the Indianapolis before it was sunk.

After the war, Bob went into business for himself and in 1946 founded Furman Builders Inc., which constructed more than 800 commercial and industrial buildings over 50 years in the Washington, D.C., area.

He is survived by his wife, Mary; four children; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson. To them, we send fond remembrances of a loyal Princetonian who attended many reunions and was our faithful AG chairman.