Captain Tibbitts is a Senior Lecturer in the Ocean Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has taught the Professional Summer course on Surface Ship Combat System Design Integration since 1989. Students from ten countries have attended this popular course.
Captain Tibbitts was born on September 29, 1934 in Annapolis, Maryland. The son and stepson of career naval officers he moved frequently. The week he turned 17, he enlisted in the Naval Reserves. In 1952 he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy by President Truman. Upon being graduated in 1956 he was commissioned an Ensign and received a BS degree.
His first sea assignment was in USS Intrepid (CVA-11) where he served as a gunnery division officer and underway OOD during two overseas deployments, and received Surface Warfare qualification. He then attended Submarine School, graduating in the top ten percent of his class. He served in USS Becuna (SS-319) for two years successively as assistant engineer, 1st lieutenant, and (following Submarine Warfare qualification) as chief engineer. Next he was operations officer and chief engineer in USS Sea Robin (SS 407).
In 1962 he was selected to attend the Naval Constructor course at MIT. He spent one summer at the former Annapolis division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. He was the trial director on two SSBN emergency surfacing underway experiments. His design project was a small submarine. His thesis was on supercharged diesel engines. He was graduated in 1965 with the degrees of SM in ME and Naval Engineer. He was elected to Sigma Xi.
His first tour as an Engineering Duty Officer was at the Naval Ship Repair Facility, Yokosuka, Japan during the height of the Vietnam War. He served in a variety of assignments at this 3000-man facility: ship superintendent, design superintendent, planning and estimating superintendent, docking officer (dry-docked 65 ships), and senior assistant repair superintendent. After directing major repairs to USS Tunny (SS 282), he rode her on her next mission to Vietnam where she “locked-out” UDT (“frogmen”) to clandestinely survey potential amphibious landing sites. He then directed the two largest ship repairs accomplished outside CONUS since WWII (a destroyer which had run aground off Taiwan and a submarine which grounded off Australia). He led the effort to get SRF certified to handle SUBSAFE repairs (the first of the three Western Pacific SRFs).
He then moved on to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Fleet. He crossed the Pacific 26 times on various trouble shooting assignments dealing with fleet maintenance and logistics. This included two extended tours to Vietnam where he assisted the South Vietnam Navy (SVN) in planing a half dozen bases in the Mekong Delta for supporting riverine craft being turned over by the US. He was decorated by the CNO SVN.
His next assignment was 6,000 miles to the east in Pascagoula Mississippi. For five years he was the deputy for submarines at SUPSHIP Pascagoula. He supervised, for the Government, construction of three nuclear attack submarines, three ammunition ships, and two catamaran-hull submarine rescue ships. He also supervised the overhaul, including refueling, of six nuclear attack submarines and a submarine tender. In 1973 he was graduated from the Naval War College, School of Command and Staff.
After twenty years of exceptional service at sea and in the field, he was assigned to Washington DC where he held a number of key technical positions. He was the first ship design manager for CVV, a 60,000 ton fossil-fueled aircraft carrier. He was director of the 450-man Hull Division in NAVSEC (Naval Ship Engineering Center). This was the Navy’s center of excellence for hull form, ship performance, weights, stability, arrangements, specification, and deck systems. While still a frocked captain he became director of NAVSEC’s Ship Design Division. He was responsible for managing the design of ships such as DDG-993, CG47, LSD 41, and MCM-1. After a brief stint on the staff of the Secretary of the Navy, he assumed command of the 2700-man David Taylor Research Center (now NSWCCD). He personally led the effort to gain approval for the $80M LCC (large cavitation channel). He acquired a Cray computer and SES-200 (surface effect test ship). In a unusual move, he was returned to head the Navy’s ship design organization (now called the Ship Design Group of NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command)). During this tour he managed the design of ships such as DDG-51, LSD-49, LHD-5, MHC-51, T-AGOS 19 (the Navy’s first SWATH ship), and the submarine SEAWOLF. For ten years he chaired the 12-nation NATO Naval Group on Ship Design (NG/6). By the year 2000, nearly 50% of the ships in the fleet will have been designed under his overall management direction. While on active duty he served in four shore command/command equivalent assignments. He served an unprecedented twelve years in the Navy’s top three technical assignments: CO of David Taylor, Director of NAVSEA Ship Design, and Navy professor at MIT.
In the summer of 1987 he was to be retired statutorily with 31 years commissioned service, but volunteered to remain on active duty. He moved to Boston where he joined the MIT faculty as professor of Naval Construction and Engineering, and head of the Navy 13A program. He taught a series of ship design courses, and supervised design projects and selected theses. At the end of his first year, the MIT Student Council voted him as the best teacher in the Ocean Engineering dept.
Since (permanent!) retirement from the Navy, Captain Tibbitts has worked with industry. He is the Chief Systems Engineer for John J. McMullen Assoc. - the largest naval architecture and marine engineering company in the US (and probably the world). Currently he supports CVNX and DD21.
Since 1985 he has published 13 papers on naval ship design, acquisition and new technologies. He has three book chapters pending publication. He is an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech. where he teaches a graduate course in advanced naval architecture. He lectures each class at DSMC (Defense Systems Management College). He is a Fellow of SNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers) and a Fellow of RINA (Royal Institution of Naval Architects).
His awards include the Legion of Merit with Gold Star; the Meritorious
Service Medal with two Gold Stars; the Navy Commendation Medal; the Vietnam
Staff Service Honor Medal; the Vietnam Service Medal with four Bronze Stars;
and the Navy and Vietnam Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbons.
Tel: (703) 412-3161 (office), (703) 642-3994 (home)
E-mail: MIT13A@aol.com or
bftibbitts@yahoo.com
last update 7/11/05