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Ex-Naval Academy superintendent Calvert dies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Retired Vice Adm. James F. Calvert, a submarine pioneer and author who served in the Navy during World War II before going on to be superintendent of the Naval Academy where he made innovations to the curriculum, has died, family members said Thursday.

Calvert, who was 88, died of heart failure Wednesday in Bryn Mawr, Pa., said Kemp Battle, his stepson.

“He was a wonderful man and did a lot of dangerous things,” his wife, Peggy, said in a telephone interview.

After graduating from Annapolis in 1942, Calvert went straight to work on submarines.

“A career submarine officer who began his service during World War II, he completed nine wartime patrols and later served an instrumental role in the development of modern submarine operations,” the academy said in a statement.

He served on the USS Jack for eight war patrols and another on the USS Haddo during World War II. The USS Jack, on which Calvert helped aim the torpedoes, is credited with sinking 15 Japanese ships.

Calvert wrote several books. In his 1995 memoir “Silent Running,” Calvert described his experiences in submarine operations in the Pacific during World War II, chasing and sinking enemy ships.

Calvert was the commanding officer of the nuclear-powered USS Skate from December 1957 to September 1959. The submarine became the first to surface at the North Pole in February 1959. Calvert wrote about the experience in a book titled “Surface At The Pole.” The trip had been made to test how well a submarine could operate in the Arctic Ocean.

Battle said deciding when to surface through the Arctic ice was “a very tricky moment,” because it was unclear what kind of damage the move would cause the submarine.

“It was a very dramatic moment when he decided to pick the spot and go for it,” Battle said. “At the time, it was a major feat.”

Calvert served as the 46th Naval Academy superintendent from 1968 to 1972.

For all of his adventures and accomplishments at sea, Battle said he believes Calvert was even prouder of his work at the helm of the academy.

During his tenure, he put an emphasis on increasing the academy’s ability to recruit top civilian faculty members.

“He felt very strongly that the education of young men demanded balance, so he fought for civilian teachers and was very proud of that,” Battle said. “He was very proud of that legacy.”

He also implemented the academy’s academic majors program, which broadened the academy’s curriculum beyond engineering to include other majors such as political science.

Calvert also created the academy’s James Forrestal Lecture in 1970, which focuses on leadership and has been given by prominent political, athletic and military leaders, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, football coach Dick Vermeil and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“He really was interested in the development of the minds of leaders,” Battle said.

After retiring from the Navy, Calvert worked as an assistant to the chairman of Texaco. He also was a senior executive at Combustion Engineering in Stamford, Conn.

Calvert is survived by his wife of 41 years, Peggy, and their four sons Craig, David, John and Kemp Battle. He also is survived by two sons, Jim and Charles, from his previous marriage to his first wife Nancy, who died in 1965.