Office of Environmental Management Deputy Assistant Secretary
Ken Picha holds an Atomic Energy Commission sign he found in the
Forrestal Building. | Photo courtesy of Ken Picha You can find
history everywhere in the Energy Department, and Ken Picha found
a heavy piece of it. Picha, a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the
Office of Environmental Management, discovered a sign for the
Atomic Energy Commission — a predecessor to the Department —
after an early morning workout at the Forrestal Building gym. He
was walking around trying to cool down when he walked past the
locker room to the cafeteria service corridor and made the
discovery. So he rolled the estimated 50-pound sign up to his
fifth-floor office. This year is our 35th anniversary, but the
AEC holds historic and personal significance to Picha for other
reasons. His father worked for the Energy Research and
Development Administration, another Energy Department
forerunner. Both the AEC and ERDA helped shape the present-day
Department. Following World War II