Product Code Database
Admiral Ben Moreell (September 14, 1892 – July 30, 1978) was the chief of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks and of the Civil Engineer Corps. Best known to the American public as the father of the Navy's , Moreell's life spanned eight decades, two world wars, a great depression and the evolution of the United States as a superpower. He was a distinguished naval officer, an engineer, an industrial giant and a national spokesman.
On December 1, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Commander Moreell to be the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Chief of Civil Engineers of the Navy. This advanced Moreell to the rank of rear admiral, although he had never been a captain. Moreell proposed the construction of two giant drydocks at Pearl Harbor and initiated naval construction projects on Midway Atoll and Wake Island, long before Japanese bombs began to fall on December 7, 1941. The docks were completed in time to repair battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor, and the facilities at Midway were completed in time to play a strategic role in the navy's first significant victory over Japanese forces.
Moreell's Civil Engineer Corps was given command authority over what would become an organization of 250,000 people that built $10 billion worth of facilities to support the war effort. In 1945, Moreell became the Chief of the Navy's Material Division, and at the request of Vice President Harry S. Truman, he negotiated a settlement to the national strike of oil refinery workers. When the government seized the nation's strikebound bituminous coal industry a year later, Moreell was designated the Coal Mines Administrator.
Military advancement:
Moreell wrote articles for The Freeman, a publication of the Foundation for Economic Education, a group that advocates free markets and a libertarian philosophy.
Moreell served as chairman of the Task Force on Water Resources and Power of the Second Hoover Commission, directing a 26-man committee from November 1953 through June 1955. Former president Herbert Hoover called the work of this task force "the most far-reaching and penetrating inquiry into our water problems ever made in our history".
Moreell was instrumental in organizing Americans for Constitutional Action (ACA), a conservative national nonpartisan political action organization. His citizenship and service to country was further exemplified by his significant contributions to the Naval Academy itself. He was a member of the board of visitors (1953–1955) and chairman of the board in 1955.
His accomplishments as chairman of the Special Advisory Commission on Future Developments of Academic Facilities is seen today in the Naval Academy's superb educational complex.
In 1957 Moreell was awarded The John Fritz Medal, referred to as the highest award in the engineering profession, the award is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. It was established in 1902 as a memorial to the great engineer whose name it bears.
When asked which of his honors meant most to him, he replied, "They are all very meaningful and deeply appreciated by me. I accepted all with pride and humility. The following excerpt from the citation for the Distinguished Service Medal presented in 1945 for World War II service gives me the greatest sense of a job 'well done:'
"Displaying great originality and exceptional capacity for bold innovation, he inspired in his subordinates a degree of loyalty and devotion to duty outstanding in the Naval Service, to the end that the Fleet received support in degree and kind unprecedented in the history of naval warfare."
Moreell was one of the founders along with Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside (Pittsburgh), of The Pittsburgh Experiment, a Christian interdenominational ministry that provides spiritual resources to business, professional and working people. The birthing vision challenge for The Experiment in the 1950s was "to make Pittsburgh as famous for God as it is for steel".Everett, Rev. Paul F. "Spirituality a good work companion". The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. February 19, 1995.
In Moreell's honor the Seabees named their Kuwait facility Camp Moreell, a military compound in Kuwait, Southwest Asia. The facility was home to U.S. Navy Seabees operating in the Persian Gulf region under Task Force Charlie as of early 2003. As of April 2003, Task Force Charlie comprised Seabees from several Naval Construction Force commands.
Moreell Avenue in Quantico, Virginia is named in his honor.
The 68,000-square-foot training facility for the Civil Engineer Corps Officers School (CECOS) in Port Hueneme, California is named Moreell Hall in his honor.
There is a housing area in the Norfolk, Virginia naval complex named for Adm. Moreell.
|
|
