Past Naval War College Presidents

Stansfield Turner (b. 1923) became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1972, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, a 1953 U.S. Naval War College graduate, sent Turner to Newport with a mission to radically change the college, providing it with a rigorous and challenging curriculum that would broaden officers’ outlooks beyond their narrow specialties and to give them the education to analyze problems effectively. In doing this, Turner built on his educational experiences and connections at Oxford to create the three-course curriculum that has existed since that time.

Vice Admiral Benedict J. Semmes, Jr., came to the presidency of the U.S. Naval War College with thirteen years experience as a flag officer and many years in top-level Navy Department administration, having served as Chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel and Commander, Second Fleet. He was no stranger to Newport, having served as commander of the Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Atlantic, 1963 – 1964, and during that time he lectured on more than one occasion at the Naval War College. During his tour as the College’s thirty-sixth president, the College shifted its emphasis away from foreign and international affairs to management concepts in keeping with the prevailing notions in Washington.

Richard Gary Colbert (1915 – 1973) graduated from the U.S. Naval War College in 1956. Staying on, he became the first director of the new senior foreign officers’ course, eventually named the Naval Command College, that began in 1956 and had its first graduates in 1957. As the college’s thirty-fifth president, he consolidated and strengthened the academic programs initiated by his predecessor, and he set in motion the construction program for Spruance, Conolly, and Hewitt Halls. Colbert also laid the groundwork for the Naval Staff College course for intermediate-level international officers, established the Naval War College Foundation, and instituted the International Seapower Symposia.

A high school dropout and a batboy for the New York Yankees, Vice Admiral John T. Hayward (1908 – 1999) began his naval career in May 1925 as a recruit at the Newport Naval Training Station. As the thirty-fourth U.S. Naval War College president, he introduced a dynamic program to make over the U.S. Navy’s highest professional school along the lines of civilian colleges. The focus on professional curriculum, student requirements, and faculty was also complemented by a program for appropriate facilities that would ultimately lead to the construction of Spruance, Conolly, and Hewitt Halls during the 1970s.

Vice Admiral Charles LeRoy Melson (1904 – 1981) graduated from the U.S. Naval War College in 1948 and served on the staff the following year. As the thirty-third president, Melson supported greater emphasis on basic naval subjects, and he expanded the use of the Naval Electronic Warfare Simulator (NEWS) for the use of war gaming in both the senior and junior courses. It was during his term also that an addition was made to Mahan Hall for an expanded library collection. Before coming to the presidency of the Naval War College, he was Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, 1958 – 1960; Commander, First Fleet, 1960 – 1962; and Commander, Taiwan Defense Command, 1962 – 1964.

Vice Admiral Bernard Lige Austin (1902 – 1967), the U.S. Naval War College’s thirty-second president, remained in office for four years, the longest tour in college history up to that time. Austin came to the college with impeccable credentials in naval warfare. In the Second World War he served as a destroyer captain and squadron commander and sailed with Arleigh Burke’s “Little Beaver” squadron in the Solomon Islands campaign. Subsequently, he joined the staff of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander, Pacific Fleet, becoming the youngest flag officer in the U.S. Navy when he was spot-promoted to commodore.

Vice Admiral Stuart H. Ingersoll (d. 1983) became the thirty-first president of the U.S. Naval War College in August 1957. In 1944, he had commanded the carrier USS Monterey (CVL 26) in the Leyte campaign and through “Halsey’s Typhoon.” When he came to the college, he had served for twelve years as a flag officer and commanded both the Sixth and Seventh Fleets. He brought to the college a broad background in planning and leadership in postwar unified commands. It was during Ingersoll’s administration that war gaming at the college made a significant change from a manual procedure to computerization.

Thomas Hinkley Robbins (1900 – 1972) had many years of service with the U.S. Naval War College before becoming the thirtieth president in September 1956. He was a member of the graduating class of 1937, served on the staff 1938 – 1939, was acting president during 1953 – 1954 and chief of staff in 1955 and 1956. Robbins inaugurated the senior foreign officer course, later the Naval Command College, in 1956 and when he left the college in August of the following year, he became Commandant of the Potomac River Naval Command—making him the first president since the Second World War who did not immediately leave active service.

Lynde Dupuy McCormick (1895 – 1956) graduated from the U.S. Naval War College in 1938 and went on to a very distinguished career, serving for a time as Vice Chief of Naval Operations (1949) and Acting Chief of Naval Operations (1951). Promoted to four stars in 1950, he served as Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet and Atlantic Command—in which position he became the first Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. On becoming the twenty-ninth president of the Naval War College, he reverted to three-star rank. In 1956, during the second year of his presidency, Admiral McCormick took the initiative to establish a new course for senior officers from other navies, the present-day Naval Command College.

In World War One, Conolly earned the Navy Cross when his ship, the transport USS Westerbridge, was torpedoed in 1918. As a lieutenant commander, Richard Lansing Conolly (1892 – 1962) graduated from the U.S. Naval War College in 1931 and then went on for a year to teach strategy and tactics on the college’s faculty. In 1942 – 1943, Conolly was assistant planning officer on the staff of Admiral Ernest J. King and planned the invasion of Guadalcanal and North Africa. In 1943, he served as Commander of Landing Craft and Bases during the invasions of North Africa and Italy, then commanded the Amphibious Assault Group at Kwajalein in 1944.