Past Naval War College Presidents

The administration of Rear Admiral Stark as the forty-seventh president of the U.S. Naval War College witnessed the reorganization of the curriculum of the College of Continuing Education so that officers could complete the course in a single shore tour. Stark also oversaw the design and building of McCarty Little Hall, initiated long-term planning for a new library and administration building and effected the incorporation of the Naval Warfare Development Center into college operations.

As the forty-sixth president, Rear Admiral Strasser occupied the presidency for five years, longer than any other president in the history of the U.S. Naval War College. His tour was highlighted by accreditation of the college by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges for the award of a Master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. Admiral Strasser was president of the college at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the end of the Cold War.

Ronald J. Kurth taught Russian at the U.S. Naval Academy, and earned a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in Russian studies at Harvard University. As the forty-fifth president of the U.S. Naval War College, Rear Admiral Kurth testified before Congress concerning Professional Military Education and the application of the Goldwater-Nichols legislation, conceived the idea that led to the accreditation of the Naval War College to award a Master of Arts degree, and began the long-term effort to construct a new building.

Before taking up his role as president, U.S. Naval War College, John A. Baldwin, Jr., had served in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy as Deputy Director of the Office of Program Appraisal and Director of the Systems Analysis Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. As the college's forty-fourth president, Rear Admiral Baldwin initiated the process that eventually led to the accreditation of the college for the granting of master’s degrees that would occur officially in 1991. He also established an Institute for Strategic Studies to facilitate the accreditation process and to serve as a device to secure and retain quality faculty.

Ronald F. Marryott (1934 – 2005) was a U.S. Navy aviator who in the mid-1960s taught naval history and the history of U.S. foreign policy, American government and politics, and international relations at the U.S. Naval Academy. As the forty-third president of the Naval War College, he promoted the college’s role in formulating strategic ideas and refining concepts. On leaving the Naval War College, he was appointed Superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1986 to 1988. After his retirement from active duty in 1990, he became president and chief executive officer of the George C. Marshall Foundation, and then, president and chief executive of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, 1996 – 2000.

A naval aviator and test pilot, James E. Service had flown combat missions in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. A graduate of the U.S. Army War College, he had served as Commander, Battle Force, Sixth Fleet, and had been in that position when F-14 fighters from his battle force had shot down two Libyan aircraft during operations in the Gulf of Sidra. As the forty-second president of the U.S. Naval War College, Vice Admiral Service presided over the college’s centenary in 1984, which was marked with the reopening of an enlarged museum in Founders Hall, after a two-year renovation program, and the publication of Sailors and Scholars, a history of the institution’s first one hundred years.

Born in Barrington, Rhode Island, Edward F. Welch (1925 – 2008) was a graduate of the National War College and former dean of academic affairs at that institution. From 1977 to 1979, he was deputy director of international negotiations on the Joint Staff with responsibility to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for arms control talks. As forty-first president of the U.S. Naval War College, he emphasized fleet operations in the curriculum and in war gaming. It was during his administration that global war gaming was begun. Welch also instituted a program, with the approval of the Chief of Naval Operations, for naval officer students to work for master’s degrees with area colleges and universities.

In 1965, James Bond Stockdale (1923 – 2005), commander of Carrier Air Wing 16, was shot down and taken prisoner in North Vietnam. Upon his release nearly eight years later, Stockdale was promoted to rear admiral and awarded the Medal of Honor for the valor and heroism of his leadership while the senior officer in prison camp. As the fortieth president of the U.S. Naval War College, Stockdale expanded the electives program to include courses on a wide variety of topics, some of which related indirectly or not at all to naval warfare and cognate themes. Stockdale taught, with Professor Joseph Brennan, a course on military ethics inspired by his own experiences as a prisoner of war.

Huntington Hardisty (1929 – 2003) had been a U.S. Navy captain and the Dean of Academics under Vice Admiral Julien J. Le Bourgeois, 1976 – 1977. As a newly promoted flag officer, he succeeded Le Bourgeois in April 1977 as the U.S. Naval War College’s thirty-ninth president. His six-month tour is the shortest of all and characterized by a conscientious application to carrying on academic programs inaugurated by his predecessor. He later went on to serve as a four-star admiral as Vice Chief of Naval Operations, 1987 – 1988, and Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Command, 1988 – 1991.

The focus of the administration of Vice Admiral Julien J. Le Bourgeois was the consolidation and refinement of the radical
changes in curriculum and organization that had been made during the previous administration. Admiral Le Bourgeois also initiated action with the Navy Department leading to the creation of a Center for Advanced Research in 1980. Noteworthy, too, was a project initiated in 1976 for a museum of naval warfare and the U.S. Navy’s regional history in the U.S. Naval War College’s original home, Founders Hall. The building had been Naval Station headquarters until 1974, when it reverted to the College.