Immigrant of the Day: Admiral Hyman Rickover (Poland)

Admiral Hyman George Rickover, United States Navy, (1898–1986) was known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” which as of July 2007 had produced 200 nuclear-powered submarines, and 23 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and cruisers. With his unique personality, political connections, responsibilities and depth of knowledge regarding naval nuclear propulsion, Rickover became the longest-serving active duty military officer in U.S. history with 63 years of continuous service.  Rickover’s substantial legacy of technical achievements includes the United States Navy’s continuing record of zero reactor accidents.

Hyman Rickover was born to a Jewish family in Poland, which at that time prior to World War I was under Russian occupation. Escaping the fate of his fellow ethnic citizens, well before World War I the young Rickover immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1905 after fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms. Living initially on the seething East Side of Manhattan, the family moved two years later to Lawndale, a community of Chicago, where his father continued his work as a tailor.

Rickover began work to help support the family at nine years of age, and later said of his childhood that it was a time of “hard work, discipline, and a decided lack of good times.”

Admiral Rickover’s personal decorations included the Submarine Warfare insignia, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Award Star, the Legion of Merit with Gold Award Star, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal. His campaign and service medals included the World War I Victory Medal, China Service Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. In recognition of his wartime service, he was made Honorary Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Admiral Rickover was twice awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for exceptional public service; the first in 1958, and the second 25 years later in 1983. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter presented Admiral Rickover with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest non-military honor, for his contributions to world peace. He also received 61 civilian awards and 15 honorary degrees, including the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award “For engineering and demonstrative leadership in the development of safe and reliable nuclear power and its successful application to our national security and economic needs.”

KJ