PASSINGS

Rev. Thomas Leo van Winkle; Atomic Scientist and Priest

The Rev. Thomas Leo van Winkle, 65, an atomic scientist who later became a Roman Catholic priest. After receiving his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Yale University he worked in Los Alamos, N.M., on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb. After the war, he joined Brookhaven National Laboratory, dealing with the disposal of radioactive waste. In 1949, Van Winkle entered the Monastery of St. Gregory the Great in Portsmouth, N.H., and seven years later was ordained a priest. In Providence, R.I., on Saturday of cancer.