US Navy Admiral. He served as the 2nd head of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) at Suitland, Maryland and as the 12th President of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. Born Raymond Perry Rodgers in Washington DC, he came from a family that was steeped in US Navy tradition. His father was Rear Admiral Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers and he was the grandnephew to two renowned US Navy commodores, Matthew C. Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry. He entered the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in July 1864 and graduated in 1868. His first assignment was aboard the frigate USS Guerriere, flagship of the South Atlantic Squadron, from 1868 to 1869, and was promoted to the rank of ensign in 1869. He then served on the frigate USS Franklin, flagship of the European Station, until 1871, and became a master in 1870 while aboard the USS Franklin. From 1871 to 1872 he served on the sloop-of-war USS Juniata,[11] and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In 1873 he returned to shore duty and became an instructor at the US Naval Academy until 1876. He then returned to sea duty, serving aboard the flagship of the Pacific Squadron, the steamer USS Pensacola, until 1879, when he returned to the US Naval Academy as an instructor, teaching astronomy and navigation. In 1882 he served in the North Atlantic Squadron aboard the frigate USS Tennessee until 1884, when he was assigned to the Bureau of Navigation in Washington DC. In 1885 he became the 2nd Chief Intelligence Officer of the ONI, and while serving in that capacity he fostered closer ties between them and the US Department of State, as they shared a mutual interest in Panama, Samoa, and the Kingdom of Hawaii. His tenure was also marked by ONI's first forays in cryptography, and he further encouraged research into new advances in naval technology through US naval attachés, as well as keeping a close watch over European colonial interests in South America. In 1889 he served aboard the protected cruiser USS Chicago, which at the time was the flagship of the Squadron of Evolution. From October 1892 until 1897, he served consecutively as US naval attaché to France in Paris, to the Russian Empire in Saint Petersburg, and to Spain in Madrid, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander in July 1894. In June 1897 he reported aboard the battleship USS Iowa as executive officer. While serving in this position, he saw action in the Spanish-American War, participating in the bombardment of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in May 1898 and the blockade of the Cuban port of Santiago de Cuba. For his action in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, in which US Navy forces destroyed the Spanish Navy squadron of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete on July 3, 1898, he was advanced five numbers in grade. He was promoted to the rank of commander in March 1899 and he commanded the gunboat USS Nashville from 1899 to 1900, operating in the West Indies and the Philippine Islands, where he provided gunfire support to American troops fighting against Filipino insurgents during the Philippine-American War, and off the coast of China during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1901 he became the aide to Admiral George Dewey, who was serving as President of the General Board of the US Navy in Washington DC. Later that year, he was assigned to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. In 1903 he was promoted to the rank of captain and spent the next two years as the commanding officer of the battleship USS Kearsarge, in the North Atlantic Fleet. He was reappointed Chief Intelligence Officer and returned to ONI in April 1906, and was promoted to rear admiral in July 1908. In 1909 he left the ONI and spent the summer in Europe, visiting England, the German Empire, France, and Italy to study their navies' organizational concepts and methods of operation and bring home information that could support anticipated US Navy reforms in those areas. In October 1909 he became President of the Naval War College and also became Commandant of Naval Station Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. At the time, the college participated actively in US Navy war planning. Acting on a suggestion by Captain William Ledyard Rodgers, who had learned it while attending the US Army War College, he introduced the "applicability system" or "estimate of the situation" into Navy war planning, requiring that planning be developed through a four-step process involving statement of mission, assessment of enemy forces and intentions, assessment of own forces, and evaluation of possible courses of action, which has remained an integral part of the US Navy's war planning ever since. At the conclusion of his tour as Naval War College president, he retired from the US Navy with 43 years of continued military service. After his retirement, he lived abroad and died at the age of 76 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where he made his home at that time. he was the brother of Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers.