Francis Raven (April 26, 1914 – December 1983) was an American

cryptologist This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. Pre twentieth century * Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...

and an early employee of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

. He helped to crack many codes to assist the United States during World War II. He also helped the NSA's training program by creating two cryptology courses.

Early career

He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1934 and joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

as a

reserve officer A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional m ...

, where he was assigned to the Naval Security Group. His commission was reactivated in 1940 and he rejoined the NSG, working on Japanese problems with

Agnes Driscoll Agnes Meyer Driscoll (July 24, 1889 – September 16, 1971), known as "Miss Aggie" or "Madame X'", was an American cryptanalyst during both World War I and World War II and was known as "the first lady of naval cryptology." Early years Driscoll ...

. After a brief period working on German ciphers, he returned to Japanese issues, and he was part of a group that systematically solved many of the low level codes starting in 1942. These were important as a source of cribs used in working the

JN-25 The vulnerability of Japanese naval codes and ciphers was crucial to the conduct of World War II, and had an important influence on foreign relations between Japan and the west in the years leading up to the war as well. Every Japanese code was e ...

fleet code. He also worked on the

JADE Jade is an umbrella term for two different types of decorative rocks used for jewelry or Ornament (art), ornaments. Jade is often referred to by either of two different silicate mineral names: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in t ...

and

CORAL Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

machines, both of which were successfully cracked.

After the war years

After the war, he stayed on as a civilian employee of the NSG, joining the

Armed Forces Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence, director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global ...

in 1946 and moving on to NSA at its formation in 1952. From 1956 on, he held a series of executive posts within the agency, culminating in his appointment as Chief of the Office of NSA's training program where he played a major part in the development of two cryptology courses; these efforts won him several civilian awards.

Retirement

In retirement, he established a firm for genealogical research and he was active there until his death in 1983.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Francis National Security Agency cryptographers Yale University alumni 1983 deaths 1914 births Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II