US Navy Admiral. He served as the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy from 1925 to 1928 and commander of the Battle Fleet from 1929 to 1930. His father was a Confederate commander during the American Civil War and commanded the Old Second Virginia Regiment, National Guard following the Civil War. In 1885, at the age of 16, he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and graduated in 1889 as an ensign and first served on the protected cruiser USS Chicago. From 1892 to 1894 he served as a lieutenant junior grade on the USS Texas followed by duty as executive officer in the rank of lieutenant of the auxiliary cruiser USS Panther (from 1894 to 1896), as ordnance officer with the rank of lieutenant commander of the battleship USS Ohio (from 1896 to 1900), and as executive officer of the battleship Wisconsin. He served two tours as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and a third tour as commandant of midshipmen (from 1905 to 1912) and compiled one of the technical dictionaries used at the Academy. In 1913 he was given command of the gunboat USS Nashville in 1913, followed by the armored cruiser USS Montana. In 1914, while in charge of the Montana at the rank of commander, he led landing parties ashore during the US occupation of Veracruz, Mexico. In 1918 he was given command of the Atlantic Fleet battleship USS Pennsylvania, and served in the rank of captain when it escorted President Woodrow Wilson to and from the Paris Peace Conference after the conclusion of World War I. In September 1922 he became commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was promoted to the rank of rear admiral (lower half) the following year. In late 1921, he unsuccessfully tried to save the partially completed battlecruiser Constitution from being scrapped by accelerating its construction schedule using funds he had illegally transferred from the construction and repair of other vessels, and by lobbying for Constitution's conversion into an aircraft carrier. In 1923 he returned to sea duty as commander of Battleship Division Three (USS New York, USS Texas, USS Oklahoma, and USS Nevada). In February 1925 he returned to shore duty and became superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy until June 1928, during which time he was promoted to the rank of full rear admiral. In the spring of 1928, he was again ordered to sea as Commander Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet, with the temporary rank of vice admiral, with his flagship being the battleship USS West Virginia. In May 1929 he was promoted to the temporary rank of admiral and chose the battleship USS California as his flagship. In May 1930 he was reverted to his permanent rank of rear admiral and assigned commandant of the 1st Naval District, with headquarters at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine and retired from the Navy in that position on September 1, 1933, with 44 years of continued military service. His military awards and decorations include the Navy Cross, awarded for exceptionally meritorious service as commandant of midshipmen at the US Naval Academy and later as commanding officer of the USS Pennsylvania, the Spanish Campaign Medal, the Spanish-American War Service Medal, and World War I Victory Medal. He died at his home at the age of 85.