Anderson, William R. 1921-2007 (William Robert Anderson)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 17, 1921, in Bakerville, TN; died February 25, 2007, in Leesburg, VA. Military officer, politician, and author. Anderson, who also served as a U.S. Congressman representing Tennessee, was most famous as the commander of the USS Nautilus, a nuclear submarine that was the first to successfully travel under the North Pole's ice cap. Graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1942, just as America entered World War II, he was sent to submarine school and a year later was on active duty in the Pacific theater. He earned a Bronze Star and remained in the navy after the war. From 1949 to 1951, Anderson taught at the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of Idaho, before returning to active duty. During the Korean War, he was commanding officer of the submarine Wahoo for two years. Next, he was sent to Washington, DC, where he worked for the Atomic Energy Commission's division of reactor development. This experience with nuclear energy made him a natural choice for assignment to the Nautilus, the navy's experimental nuclear-powered submarine. A remarkable vessel, the Nautilus could travel virtually indefinitely underwater, only resurfacing when its crew needed supplies. In the summer of 1958, Anderson commanded the Nautilus during its historic voyage, a successful mission that brought him and his crew as much attention as the space program. Anderson was awarded the Legion of Merit for this achievement, and his crew earned the Presidential Unit Citation. Having reached the rank of captain, Anderson retired from the navy in 1962. Returning to his home state, he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor. In 1965, however, he won the Sixth Congressional District of Tennessee seat, an office he held for three terms as a Democrat. As a politician, Anderson was considered a moderate; he was a Democrat who supported the Vietnam War. He did make waves in 1970, though, when he harshly criticized J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, for his McCarthy-like accusations against two Roman Catholic priests. Hoover accused Daniel J. and Philip F. Berrigan of plotting to destroy electrical conduits in Washington, DC, and kidnap a government official in protest of the war. The accusations were baseless, asserted Anderson publicly, and designed as scare tactics to intimidate the Berrigans, who were guilty of destroying draft records, but nothing more. After losing to a Republican in 1972, Anderson cofounded a database management company, Public Office Corporation. He cowrote several books about submarines, including Nautilus 90 North (1959), The Useful Atom (1966), and Atomic Submarines (1968), and he was also the author of the children's book First under the North Pole (1959).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2007, Section 2, p. 10.

Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2007, p. B11.

New York Times, March 6, 2007, p. C13.

Times (London, England), March 12, 2007, p. 54.

Washington Post, March 5, 2007, p. B6.