Lauren S. McCready, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetLauren S. McCready
Founder of the US Merchant Marine Academy
Date of Birth: 
About Lauren S. McCready
- Rear Admiral Lauren S.
- McCready (July 26, 1915 – November 15, 2007) was one of the builders and founders of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, "Kings Point." He graduated from New York University in 1937 with a degree in mechanical engineering, soon after he received his marine engineers license.
- He continued to work as a ship's third engineer until 1940 when he entered the Maritime Officers Training School at Fort Trumbull.
- Shortly after graduation he joined the Washington, D.C.
- staff of the United States Maritime Commission as a Cadet Training Instructor. In February 1942 he was assigned to partake in the acquisition and conversion of the Walter P.
- Chrysler estate on Long Island into the newly commissioned Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy.
- He was the first head of the Engineering Department, and created the Engineering Department virtually from scratch while overseeing the design and construction of Fulton Hall.
- Over a 29 year period he brought the Engineering Department its first accreditation, founded a nuclear engineering curriculum, led the officer training for the first nuclear-powered cargo ship, the NS Savannah, and earned his own Senior Nuclear Reactor Operator's License.
- He retired from full-time teaching in 1970, but continued to teach as an adjunct until 1975. In 1971, McCready was appointed the first director of the National Maritime Research Center at Kings Point, a department he helped establish.
- He served there for three years before retiring from federal service in 1975.
- McCready is the recipient of the Department of Commerce Gold Medal and the Engineers of Distinction Award.
- In 1981 he was designated an honorary alumnus of the Academy, and in 1983 he was named professor emeritus.
- A major laboratory area in Fulton Hall bears McCready's name. Admiral McCready was an honorary alumnus of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and recipient of an honorary doctorate.
- Admiral McCready was exceptionally proud of the accomplishments of Kings Point graduates, and attended Homecoming every year, where his presentation "Kings Point: The Early Years" was a popular sell-out.
- One of his most remarkable records was that he watched over 21,000 Kings Pointers receive their diplomas, participating in every commencement ceremony from the first class to cross a King Point campus stage in 1942 through 2005. In 1973, after several travels to France, he wrote a thesis for the degree of Master of Science (History of Sciences) entitled "the Invention and Development of the Gnome Rotary aero engine - the work of Louis and Laurent Seguin".
- He was given by the Seguin family the first model of the Gnome engine, and gave it to the Smithonian Institute (Washington) where it is exhibited.
Read more at Wikipedia