Ploughshares Hosts Starry Benefit Gala at Commonwealth Club

Charles Oppenheimer, grandson of Manhattan Project head J. Robert Oppenheimer, was one of several notables who showed up in San Francisco June 24 to support Ploughshares, a leading global nuclear non-proliferation organization. The group’s annual Chain Reaction gala this year focused on the bold future that lies ahead for today’s anti-nuclear activists. Other VIPs who made a showing at the Commonwealth Club that night included Pia Chamberlain, daughter of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Owen Chamberlain, and Patricia Ellsberg who, together with her husband the late Dan Ellsberg, leaked the Pentagon Papers. 

Throughout the evening, prominent guests from the nuclear field engaged in compelling, thought provoking and informative discussions about nuclear weapons. Annie Jacobsen, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of bestseller Nuclear War: A Scenario, had a conversation with Ploughshares president Dr. Emma Belcher, touching on the new wave of nuclear media.

Outgoing Ploughshares board chair Terry Gamble Boyer had a lively conversation with journalist Barbara Slavin, assessing the nuclear implications of the Middle East crisis. 

For over four decades, Ploughshares has supported the most effective advocates and organizations in the world, working to reduce the danger posed by nuclear weapons. Funds raised at this year’s gala will go to support this critical work.