Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

Richard Gurnon is a retired college administrator who served as president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy from 2005 to 2015.

Career

A 1970 graduate of the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

, Gurnon served in 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 ...

from 1970 to 1978 as a naval aviator before leaving military service. At that time, he took a position at Massachusetts Maritime Academy as a company officer. Over the years he assumed positions of greater responsibility. In 2004 he served as acting president during the illness of president Rear Admiral Maurice Bresnahan.

Tenure as president

After Bresnahan's death, Gurnon was appointed president of the academy in 2005, a position that carries the title rear admiral in the

United States Maritime Service The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as voluntary training organization to train individuals to become officers and crewmembers on merchant ships that form the ...

. Over the course of his ten years as president, Gurnon led efforts to revitalize the academy. These efforts led to many new buildings on campus, expanded degree offerings, and a doubling of student enrollment. Early in his tenure, however, Gurnon faced criticism from the academy's board of trustees in the midst of a school and police investigation into a student sex scandal. In December 2005, the trustees voted to remove Gurnon as president. The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education criticized the move, and later that month the trustees voted to restore Gurnon. In the aftermath, most of the trustees were replaced. In 2009, Gurnon was interviewed frequently by media outlets after the Maersk Alabama hijacking by

Somali pirates Horn of Africa * Somali Peninsula, a region of East Africa, also known as "The Horn of Africa" * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Greater Somalia ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali culture ...

since the ship's captain and chief mate were both academy graduates. Gurnon told interviewers he expected a rise in applicants to the academy following the dramatic events. According to the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' Gurnon pointed out that the academy teaches its students about how to deter and react to pirate attacks.

Retirement

On August 12, 2015, Gurnon retired as President after over ten years as President at Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he was relieved by Rear Admiral Francis X. McDonald, USMS at a formal change of command ceremony presided by Chip Jaenikin, U.S. Maritime Administrator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurnon, Richard Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American naval officers Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Massachusetts Maritime Academy United States Naval Academy alumni People from Everett, Massachusetts