James M Dunford

Captain Dunford graduated third in the 1939 class at United States Naval Academy. Following graduation he served on the USS Saratoga as Electrical Officer, and soon was selected to attend an MIT program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in 1942. After Engineering Duty assignments at Puget Sound Navy Yard and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, he was one of five Engineering Duty officers sent to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1946 to learn about nuclear power and how the Navy might use it for ship propulsion. The senior member of that group was Captain H. G. Rickover. After sixteen intense months of study in Oak Ridge, Captain Dunford was assigned to the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Washington, DC. In 1949, the AEC formed a Naval Nuclear Power Branch with the original Oak Ridge team. Led by Rickover, this group developed the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

During his time in Oak Ridge, Captain Dunford was in charge of systems for converting the nuclear power to steam and propulsion. When construction of the land prototype for the Nautilus was started at the AEC reactor testing station in Idaho in 1951, Captain Dunford was sent there as the Naval Nuclear Power Representative. In August 1952 Captain Dunford returned to Washington to serve as technical assistant to AEC Commissioner Thomas E. Murray. After a subsequent assignment as Design Superintendent at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Captain Dunford attained the rank of Captain and returned to Washington, DC to act as Admiral Rickover’s Deputy. Captain Dunford had the responsibility for selecting and training officers and crew for the rapidly expanding nuclear submarine force including the task of preparing candidates for the notorious Rickover interview.

In January 1961, Captain Dunford retired from active duty to serve as Vice-President, Naval Nuclear for New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, NJ, overseeing construction of three nuclear submarines and one surface nuclear powered cruiser over four years.

Subsequent roles included Visiting Professor in the engineering faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and civilian Technical Director of the US Naval Air Engineering Center in the Philadelphia Naval Base and finally, Executive VP of CDI Marine Company, a naval architecture and marine engineering firm. In 1980, Captain Dunford retired to a life of consulting in the civilian nuclear power field until final retirement in 1990.

Captain Dunford was born in Seattle, Washington on October 13, 1915, graduated from Broadway High School as valedictorian and went on to the University of Washington in Seattle where he studied electrical engineering for three years. He received a congressional appointment and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in the summer of 1935. In 1941, he married his Academy sweetheart, Virginia MacEachern of Forest Hills, NY; they went on to establish one of the largest families in the Academy Class of 1939 with eight children.

He was an avid photographer from his early years. He enjoyed amateur radio, woodworking, and listening to opera. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America with his sons and enjoyed camping with his family. He and his wife traveled a great deal in his later years and enjoyed researching his family’s genealogy. He was active in the Jacksonville area Kiwanis Club. He was involved with his wife, Virginia, in developing the Jacksonville Beach Library.

He is survived by his eight children: John A. Dunford of Mason, Oh, Anne M. Dunford of Jacksonville Beach, Fl, Robert W. Dunford of Naperville, Il, Phyllis D. Peterson of Charlotte, NC, James M. Dunford, Jr. of Los Altos, CA, Margaret M. Dunford of Belmont, NC, Louise D. Brodnitz of Washington, DC, and Thomas G. Dunford of Bothell, WA, fourteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

After a requiem Mass at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, January 25th at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Atlantic Beach, Florida, his body will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on a date to be determined. The family will receive friends Monday for a visitation from 4 p.m. until 6:45 p.m., with a vigil service to follow at 7 p.m., at HARDAGE-GIDDENS FUNERAL HOME, 1701 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach, Florida.