This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Cory Butterfield, AO1
to remember
Wilkinson, Eugene Parks, VADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Long Beach, CA
Last Address Del Mar, CA
Date of Passing Jul 11, 2013
Location of Interment Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery (VA) - San Diego, California
Eugene Wilkinson was born August 10, 1918, in Long Beach, the youngest of two to Dennis Wilkinson and DaisyParks. Orphaned at a young age after his father was killed in a car accident and his mother died from a sudden illness, he was raised by his grandparents, Dennis and Lillian Wilkinson, who ran a creamery in Holtville. Graduating with a degree in physics and chemistry in 1938 from what was then San Diego State College, he taught chemistry and mathematics there for two years before receiving his Navy commission in December 1940.
Joining then-Captain Hyman G. Rickover at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April 1948 after passing one of the first of Rickover's many such interviews, the mathematically-gifted Wilkinson "ultimately developed the nuclear physics equations and formulas for the team...and for the final reactor design" of the prototype reactor for USS Nautilus (SSN-571).
At 1100 on January 17, 1955, after getting the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) underway, Commander Wilkinson signaled "Underway on Nuclear Power." This historic message ushered in the nuclear age for the United States Navy, as well as the world. Wilkinson was the first commanding officer in a nuclear fleet that would eventually cover most of the aircraft carriers, several cruisers, and the entire submarine fleet for the United States Navy.
After retiring from the Navy, he received the Navy Meritorious Public Service Award (1976), the George Washington Gold Medal of the American Society of Engineers (1983), the Oliver Townsend Medal (1984), the Uranium Institute Gold Medal (1989), elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1990), the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award (1994), and the Walter H. Zinn Award from the American Nuclear Society (1998). In 1980 he was chosen as the first President and CEO of the newly formed Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) from which he retired in 1984.
Retired VADM Wilkinson died of natural causes July 11 at his Del Mar home. He was 94.
Other Comments:
Submarine war patrols:
USS Blackfish (SS221) - 1st through 4th
USS Darter (SS-277) - 1st through 4th
