Franklin Vincent Reno (14 May 1911 – 1 May 1990) was amathematician and civilian employee at theUnited States ArmyAberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in the 1930s. Reno was a member of the "Karl group" of Soviet spies which was being handled byWhittaker Chambers until 1938. Reno confessed in late 1948 to his espionage activities on behalf of theGRU.[1] He is listed as number "118th" in theGorsky Memo. Reno was sentenced to three years in prison.[2]
Reno was born in Salt Lake City,[3] to a stock raiser and his wife from "Reno, Idaho" (likely Reno Ranch, Idaho).[4] He attendedFort Collins High School from 1924 to 1928 and Colorado State College in Fort Collins from 1928 to 1929.[5] He graduated fromUniversity of Colorado Boulder with "top honors" in mathematics in 1932.[6] He was elected toPhi Beta Kappa in spring 1932 as Victor Reno.[7] While doing graduate studies in astronomy at the University of Virginia in 1935 he joined the Communist Party under the name "Lance Clark."[6] He then took a job at the national office of theWorks Progress Administration, after which he resigned to become aCommunist Party organizer in Maryland. He began working at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1937 and continued there until his resignation in 1949.[8] In 1945 he was "given thewar department's gold medal for devising a complicatedbomb table."[9] He worked on theNorden bombsight and was said to have passed information on this device toAlger Hiss.[6] In 1952 he pleaded guilty to not disclosing his Communist Party when he was being screened for the Aberdeen job. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.[9]
Reno also collaborated withEdward J. McShane of the University of Virginia andJohn L. Kelley of the University of California on a book calledExterior Ballistics.[10] The judge gave Reno a month's delay in reporting for his sentence so he could finish his work on the book.[9]
Reno died in 1990 at age 79.[11]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)