Hyman George Rickover

Hyman George Rickover (1900-1986), United States naval officer responsible for developing the nuclear-powered submarine. Rickover was born in Maków, in what is now Poland, and brought up in Chicago. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1922. Trained as an engineer, he was assistant director of operations of the atomic energy Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1946 and 1947. Later, in his dual capacities as chief of the Naval Reactors Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and head of the Nuclear Power Division of the U.S. Navy, Rickover supervised the planning and construction of the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, which was launched in 1954. Long concerned with the curriculum and quality of American education, he wrote Education and Freedom (1959), a collection of essays calling for improved standards of education, particularly in mathematics and science; Swiss Schools and Ours: Why Theirs Are Better (1962); and American Education: A National Failure (1963). For his accomplishments, he was awarded a gold congressional medal (1959), the Distinguished Service Medal (1961), the Enrico Fermi Award (1965), and the Medal of Freedom (1980). Rickover retired in 1982.