More likely a radio nerd, John Alvin Pierce, that was just really good at radio and obsessed with oscillators (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/60675) that inspired a group of distinguished government-employed engineers and scientists.
In fairness, there _might_ be a pocket-protector in this picture of them but it's a bit blurry. Actually, yes, there definitely is. No cigarettes, however:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/lw/2.0/html/tileshop_pmc/t... on image to zoom&p=PMC3&id=4487279_jres.119.004f7.jpg