Eugene P. Wilkinson

Eugene Parks Dennis Wilkinson was a United States Naval officer who was selected for three historic command assignments. The first, in 1954, was as the first Commanding Officer of the USS Nautilus, the worlds first nuclear submarine. The second was in 1961, where Admiral Rickover selected him to serve as the first Commanding Officer of the USS Long Beach, Americas first nuclear surface ship. The third was in 1980 when he was chosen as the first President and CEO of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations from which he retired in 1984.

Wilkinson, born in August 1918 in Long Beach, California, the son of Dennis William and Daisy Parks Wilkinson. He attended Holtville, California, High School and San Diego State College. He graduated from the latter in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in chemistry. He taught chemistry there for a year. He also filled in and taught a course in mathematics. During this year he attended the University of Southern California. The next year he had a teaching fellowship in chemistry at USC. During those two years he completed all of the course work for a doctors degree but never did a thesis or received any graduate degree. Commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve onDecember 1940, he was transferred to the regular U.S. Navy onAugust 1946.

Source: Wikipedia