Andrews, Philip (31 March 1866–18 December 1935), naval officer, was born in New York City, the son of Phoebe D. Andrews, a Jersey City schoolteacher (father’s name unknown). Andrews completed his U.S. Naval Academy course in 1886 and entered the navy in the early stage of conversion from wood and sail to steel and steam-powered warships. About this same time he married Clara Fuller; they had one child. During the 1890s Andrews served on a number of these new steel men-of-war, including the armored cruiser ...
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Andrews, Philip (1866-1935), naval officer
Jeffery M. Dorwart
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Benson, William Shepherd (1855-1932), naval officer
Mark Russell Shulman
Benson, William Shepherd (25 September 1855–20 May 1932), naval officer, was born in Bibb County, Georgia, the son of Richard Aaron Benson and Catherine Elizabeth Brewer, planters. Benson was one of the first men from the Reconstruction South to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating forty-third in a class of forty-six in 1877. After first serving on the ...
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Bloch, Claude Charles (1878-1967), naval officer
Rodney P. Carlisle
Bloch, Claude Charles (12 July 1878–06 October 1967), naval officer, was born in Woodbury, Kentucky, the son of Adolph Bloch, a merchant. His mother’s name is unknown. From 1892 to 1895 he attended Ogden College in Kentucky and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1895. As a cadet, he served aboard the battleship ...
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Boorda, Jeremy Michael (1938-1996), admiral and chief of naval operations
John C. Fredriksen
Boorda, Jeremy Michael (28 November 1938–16 May 1996), admiral and chief of naval operations, was born in South Bend, Indiana, on 26 November 1938, the son of Herman Boorda, a clothing merchant, and Gertrude Frank Wallis Boorda. At the age of sixteen he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the navy after lying about his age. Thereafter he took readily to discipline and was assigned to the Naval Air Technical School in Norman, Oklahoma. In March 1957 he married Bettie Ray Moran; they had four children....
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Boorda, Jeremy Michael (1938-1996)
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Jeremy Michael Boorda. Courtesy of the United States Navy.
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Bristol, Mark Lambert (1868-1939), naval officer and diplomat
Rodney P. Carlisle
Bristol, Mark Lambert (17 April 1868–13 May 1939), naval officer and diplomat, was born in Glassboro, New Jersey, the son of Mark Lambert Bristol and Rachel Elizabeth Bush, farmers. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883 and graduated in 1887. After service aboard the converted bark ...
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Burke, Arleigh (1901-1996), admiral and chief of naval operations
John C. Fredriksen
Burke, Arleigh (19 October 1901–01 January 1996), admiral and chief of naval operations, was born Arleigh Albert Burke in Boulder, Colorado, the son of Oscar A. Burke and Claire Mokler Burke, farmers. After being educated at numerous preparatory schools, Burke gained admittance to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1919. He graduated four years later, 71st in a class of 413. On his graduation day in 1923 he married Roberta Gorsuch; they had no children. Over the next two decades Burke fulfilled routine naval service duties ashore and at sea; in 1931 he received a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan. Following a two-year tour with the navy's bureau of ordnance in 1937, he became executive officer of the destroyer ...
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Burke, Arleigh (1901-1996)
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Arleigh Burke. Aboard the USS Lexington. Courtesy of the USS McCampbell.
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Caperton, William Banks (1855-1941), admiral, U.S. Navy
John B. Hattendorf
Caperton, William Banks (30 June 1855–21 December 1941), admiral, U.S. Navy, was born in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the son of Samuel B. Caperton and Mary Jane Childress. Following Caperton’s early education at Spring Hill Academy, in 1871 Congressman Washington C. Whitthorne gave him an appointment as midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. Caperton graduated from the academy in 1875 and served for two years as a passed midshipman on board the USS ...
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Chadwick, French Ensor (1844-1919), naval officer
Paolo E. Coletta
Chadwick, French Ensor (29 February 1844–27 January 1919), naval officer, was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, the son of Daniel Clark Chadwick, a grocer, and Margaret Elizabeth Evans. At age seventeen he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, which because of the Civil War had moved from Annapolis, Maryland, to Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated fourth in his class in November 1864. He was a veteran of the war only in the sense that he served on the small steamer ...
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Cone, Hutchinson Ingham (1871-1941), naval engineer and naval officer
William M. McBride
Cone, Hutchinson Ingham (26 April 1871–12 February 1941), naval engineer and naval officer, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Daniel Newnan Cone and Annette Ingham. The Cone family home was in the country near Lake City, Florida, and his early training and education were at East Florida Military and Agricultural College, from which he graduated in 1889. In September 1890 Cone was appointed a naval cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy. During his four-year course at the Naval Academy, he was vice president of his class, and he opted for training as an engineer cadet his senior year. After graduation from the academy in June 1894, Cone served as a passed engineer cadet on the USS ...
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Danenhower, John Wilson (1849-1887), naval officer and arctic explorer
Ted Heckathorn
Danenhower, John Wilson (30 September 1849–20 April 1887), naval officer and arctic explorer, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of William Washington Danenhower, a publisher and political activist; his mother’s name is not known. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1870, he served in Europe, the North Pacific, and at the U.S. Naval Observatory. In 1878 he suffered a mental breakdown and was confined for four months at the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. After his release he served on the ...
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Davis, Charles Henry, II (1845-1921), naval officer
James R. Reckner
Davis, Charles Henry, II (28 August 1845–27 December 1921), naval officer, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Rear Admiral Charles Henry Davis and Harriette Blake Mills. Davis was the scion of one of New England’s oldest and most prominent families. His grandfather Daniel Davis had served as solicitor general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for thirty years, while his grandmother was the sister of the first Unitarian minister in the United States....
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Davison, Gregory Caldwell (1871-1935), naval officer and inventor
Rod Paschall
Davison, Gregory Caldwell (12 August 1871–07 May 1935), naval officer and inventor, was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, the son of Alexander Caldwell Davison, a physician, and Sarah Pelot Eppes. In 1888 he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated with the class of 1892....
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De Long, George Washington (1844-1881), naval officer and explorer
Samuel Willard Crompton
De Long, George Washington (22 August 1844–30 October 1881), naval officer and explorer, was born in New York City, the son of Levi De Long and Catherine Greames (occupations unknown). He grew up in Brooklyn and was fascinated with stories of American naval heroes during the War of 1812. His protective parents tried vigorously to dissuade him—their only child—from going to sea, but he gained entrance on his own to the U.S. Naval Academy, which at the time was located at Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated with distinction in 1865, too late to participate in the Civil War. He was assigned as a midshipman aboard the U.S.S. ...
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Denfeld, Louis Emil (1891-1972), admiral and chief of naval operations
John C. Fredriksen
Denfeld, Louis Emil (13 April 1891–28 March 1972), admiral and chief of naval operations, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, the son of Louis Denfeld, an attorney, and Etta May Kelley Denfeld. He graduated from Duluth (Minn.) High School in 1908, was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy that year, and graduated as an ensign four years later. Following routine assignments aboard the battleships ...
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Dewey, George (1837-1917), naval officer
William R. Braisted
Dewey, George (26 December 1837–16 January 1917), naval officer, was born in Montpelier, Vermont, the son of Julius Yemans Dewey, a prominent physician and insurance company president, and Mary Perrin. His mother died when Dewey was just five years old. After study at Norwich University, Dewey entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1854. The rambunctious plebe accumulated 113 demerits during his first year at the academy, but he graduated in 1858, fifth in his class of fifteen. After a cruise in the Mediterranean on the new frigate ...
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Dewey, George (1837-1917)
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George Dewey. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-105269).
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Doyle, James Henry (1897-1981), naval officer
Malcolm Muir
Doyle, James Henry (29 August 1897–09 February 1981), naval officer, was born in Astoria, New York, the son of John Joseph Doyle, the assistant chief clerk in the Department of Health in Jamaica, New York, and Elizabeth Acheson Johnson. Winning an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1916, James Doyle made wartime summer cruises in the battleships ...
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Earle, Ralph (1874-1939), naval officer and college president
Paolo E. Coletta
Earle, Ralph (03 May 1874–13 February 1939), naval officer and college president, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Stephen Carpenter Earle, an architect, and Mary Eaton Brown. After attending the Worcester Polytechnic Institute for less than a year, he was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1896. In keeping with the normal career pattern, he would alternate between ship and shore duty. His first active duty was in the battleship ...
