Edward F. Welch, Jr.

Edward F. Welch Jr. (13 November 1924 – 2 January 2008) was a rear admiral of the United States Navy active during much of the Cold War. His career included service as a submarine officer, positions related to nuclear warfare planning, arms control, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization affairs, and a tour as president of the Naval War College.

Naval career Welch was born on 13 November 1924 in Barrington, Rhode Island. He attended the University of Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1943 during World War II. The navy assigned him to the Naval Academy Preparatory School at United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Maryland, before he entered the United States Naval Academy as a member of the class of 1948. He graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Science degree,

In the mid-1950s, Welch was personal aide to the Commander, Submarine Force, United States Atlantic Fleet (ComSubLant). As college president, he emphasized fleet operations in the colleges curriculum and wargaming, instituted the Global Wargame, and established a program under which naval officer students could earn master's degrees – which the college did not offer at the time – by taking courses at other colleges and universities in the Newport area. During his tour at the war college, Johnson and Wales University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1981. They had two children, Mary Welch Rider and James E. Welch. Welch died of congestive heart failure at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, on January 2, 2008, at the age of 83. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.