Chester W . Nimitz Chester William Nimitz GCB ( 24 February 188520 February 1966 ) was a Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy . He held the dual command of Commander in Chief , United States Pacific Fleet ( CinCPac ) , for U . S . naval forces and Commander in Chief , Pacific Ocean Areas ( CinCPOA ) , for U . S . and Allied air , land , and sea forces during World War II . He was the leading U . S . Navy authority on submarine s , as well as Chief of the Navy ' s Bureau of Navigation in 1939 . He served as Chief of Naval Operations ( CNO ) from 1945 until 1947 . He was the United States ' last surviving Fleet Admiral . Early life and education . Nimitz , a German Texan , was born the son of Anna Josephine ( Henke ) and Chester Bernhard Nimitz on 24 February 1885 in Fredericksburg , Texas , where his grandfather ' s hotel is now the Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site . His frail , rheumatic father died before Nimitz was born . He was significantly influenced by his German - born paternal grandfather , Charles Henry Nimitz , a former seaman in the German Merchant Marine , who taught him , " the sea - like life itself - is a stern taskmaster . The best way to get along with either is to learn all you can , then do your best and don ' t worry - especially about things over which you have no control . " Originally , Nimitz applied to West Point in hopes of becoming an Army officer , but there were no appointments available . His congressman , James L . Slayden , told him that he had one appointment available for the Navy and that he would award it to the best qualified candidate . Nimitz felt that this was his only opportunity for further education and spent extra time studying to earn the appointment . He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Texas ' s 12th congressional district in 1901 , and he graduated with distinction on 30 January 1905 , seventh in a class of 114 . Military career . Early career . He joined the battleship at San Francisco , and cruised on her to the Far East . In September 1906 , he was transferred to the cruiser ; and , on 31 January 1907 , after the two years at sea as a warrant officer then required by law , he was commissioned as an Ensign . Remaining on Asiatic Station in 1907 , he successively served on the gunboat , destroyer , and cruiser . The destroyer ran aground on a sand bar in the Philippines on 7 July 1908 while under the command of Ensign Nimitz . The ship was pulled free the next day , and Nimitz was court - martialed , found guilty of neglect of duty , and issued a letter of reprimand . Nimitz returned to the United States onboard USS " Ranger " when that vessel was converted to a school ship , and in January 1909 began instruction in the First Submarine Flotilla . In May of that year he was given command of the flotilla , with additional duty in command of USS " Plunger " , later renamed " A - 1 " . He commanded USS " Snapper " ( later renamed " C - 5 " ) when that submarine was commissioned on 2 February 1910 , and on 18 November 1910 assumed command of USS " Narwhal " ( later renamed " D - 1 " ) . In the latter command he had additional duty from 10 October 1911 , as Commander 3rd Submarine Division Atlantic Torpedo Fleet . In November 1911 he was ordered to the Boston Navy Yard , to assist in fitting out USS " Skipjack " and assumed command of that submarine , which had been renamed " E - 1 " , at her commissioning on 14 February 1912 . On the monitor " Tonopah " on 20 March 1912 , he rescued Fireman Second Class W . J . Walsh from drowning , receiving a Silver Lifesaving Medal for his action . After commanding the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla from May 1912 to March 1913 , he supervised the building of diesel engines for the tanker , under construction at the New London Ship and Engine Company , Groton , Connecticut . World War I . In the summer of 1913 , Nimitz ( who spoke German ) studied engines at the diesel engine plants in Nuremberg , Germany , and Ghent , Belgium . Returning to the New York Navy Yard , he became Executive and Engineer Officer of the fleet oiler " Maumee " on her commissioning , 23 October 1916 . After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 Nimitz was on board the " Maumee " when it served as a refueling ship for the first squadron of U . S . Navy destroyers to cross the Atlantic to take part in the war . During this time " Maumee " conducted the first ever underway refuelings . On 10 August 1917 , Nimitz became aide to Rear Admiral Samuel S . Robison , Commander , Submarine Force , U . S . Atlantic Fleet ( ) . On 6 February 1918 , Nimitz was appointed Chief of Staff and was awarded a Letter of Commendation for meritorious service as ' s Chief of Staff . On 16 September , he reported to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations , and on 25 October was given additional duty as Senior Member , Board of Submarine Design . Between the wars . From May 1919 to June 1920 he served as executive officer of the battleship . He then commanded the cruiser with additional duty in command of Submarine Division 14 , based at Pearl Harbor . Returning to the mainland in the summer of 1922 , he studied at the Naval War College , Newport , Rhode Island , and in June 1923 , became Aide and Assistant Chief of Staff to Commander Battle Fleet , and later to the Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet . In August 1926 he went to the University of California , Berkeley to establish the Navy ' s first Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit . Nimitz lost part of one finger in an accident with a diesel engine , only saving the rest of it when the machine jammed against his Annapolis ring . Nimitz barked orders even through the excruciating pain . In June 1929 he took command of Submarine Division 20 . In June 1931 he assumed command of the destroyer tender and the destroyers out of commission at San Diego , California . In October 1933 he took command of the cruiser and deployed to the Far East , where in December " Augusta " became flagship of the Asiatic Fleet . In April 1935 , he returned home for three years as Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation , before becoming Commander , Cruiser Division 2 , Battle Force . In September 1938 he took command of Battleship Division 1 , Battle Force . On 15 June 1939 he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation . World War II . Ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 he was selected as Commander in Chief , United States Pacific Fleet ( CINCPACFLT ) , with the rank of Admiral , effective 31 December . He took command in a ceremony on the top deck of the submarine . The change of command ceremony would normally have taken place aboard a battleship , but every battleship in Pearl Harbor had been either sunk or damaged during the attack on 7 December . Assuming command at the most critical period of the war in the Pacific , Admiral Nimitz , despite the losses from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the shortage of ships , planes and supplies , successfully organized his forces to halt the Japanese advance . On 24 March 1942 , the newly - formed US - British Combined Chiefs of Staff issued a directive designating the Pacific theater an area of American strategic responsibility . Six days later the US Joint Chiefs of Staff ( JCS ) divided the theater into three areas : the Pacific Ocean Areas ( POA ) , the Southwest Pacific Area ( SWPA , commanded by General Douglas MacArthur ) , and the Southeast Pacific Area . The JCS designated Nimitz as " Commander in Chief , Pacific Ocean Areas " with operational control over all Allied units ( air , land , and sea ) in that area . As rapidly as ships , men , and material became available , Nimitz shifted to the offensive and defeated the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea , the pivotal Battle of Midway , and in the Solomon Islands Campaign . By Act of Congress , approved 14 December 1944 , the grade of Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy — the highest grade in the Navy – was established and the next day President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt appointed Admiral Nimitz to that rank . Nimitz took the oath of that office on 19 December 1944 . In the final phases in the war in the Pacific , he attacked the Mariana Islands , inflicting a decisive defeat on the Japanese Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea , and capturing Saipan , Guam , and Tinian . His Fleet Forces isolated enemy - held bastions of the Central and Eastern Caroline Islands and secured in quick succession Peleliu , Angaur , and Ulithi . In the Philippines , his ships turned back powerful task forces of the Japanese Fleet , a historic victory in the multi - phased Battle for Leyte Gulf 24 to 26 October 1944 . Fleet Admiral Nimitz culminated his long - range strategy by successful amphibious assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa . In addition , Nimitz also ordered the United States Army Air Forces to mine the Japanese ports and waterways by air with B - 29 Superfortress es in a successful mission called Operation Starvation , which severely interrupted the Japanese logistics . In January 1945 , Nimitz moved the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet forward from Pearl Harbor to Guam for the remainder of the war . Mrs Nimitz remained in the continental United States for the duration of the war , and she did not join her husband in Hawaii or Guam . On 2 September 1945 Nimitz signed for the United States when Japan formally surrendered on board the " Missouri " in Tokyo Bay . On 5 October 1945 , which had been officially designated as " Nimitz Day " in Washington , D . C . , Admiral Nimitz was personally presented a Gold Star for the third award of the Distinguished Service Medal by the President of the United States " for exceptionally meritorious service as Commander in Chief , U . S . Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas , from June 1944 to August 1945 . . . " Post war . On 26 November 1945 his nomination as Chief of Naval Operations was confirmed by the U . S . Senate , and on 15 December 1945 he relieved Fleet Admiral Ernest J . King . He had assured the President that he was willing to serve as the CNO for one two - year term , but no longer . He tackled the difficult task of reducing the most powerful navy in the world to a fraction of its war - time strength , while establishing and overseeing active and reserve fleets with the strength and readiness required to support national policy . At the same time , Nimitz endorsed an entirely new course for the U . S . Navy ' s future by way of supporting then - Captain Hyman G . Rickover ' s chain - of - command - circumventing proposal in 1947 to build USS " Nautilus " ( SSN - 571 ) , the world ' s first nuclear - powered vessel . As noted at a display at the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg , Texas : " Nimitz ' s greatest legacy as CNO is arguably his support of Admiral Hyman Rickover ' s effort to convert the submarine fleet from diesel to nuclear propulsion . " For the post - war trial of German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946 , Nimitz furnished an affidavit in support of the practice of unrestricted submarine warfare , a practice that he himself had employed throughout the war in the Pacific . This evidence is widely credited as a reason why Dönitz was sentenced to only 10 years of imprisonment . Inactive duty as a Fleet Admiral . On 15 December 1947 , Nimitz retired from office of Chief of Naval Operations and received a third Gold Star in lieu of a fourth Navy Distinguished Service Medal . However , since the rank of Fleet Admiral is a lifetime appointment , he remained on active duty for the rest of his life , with full pay and benefits . He and his wife Catherine moved to Berkeley , California . After he suffered a serious fall in 1964 , he and Catherine moved to US Naval quarters on Yerba Buena Island in the San Francisco Bay . In San Francisco , he served in the mostly ceremonial post as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in the Western Sea Frontier . After World War II , he worked to help restore goodwill with Japan by helping to raise funds for the restoration of the Japanese Imperial Navy battleship " Mikasa " , Admiral Heihachiro Togo ' s flagship at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 . He was also suggested as a United Nations envoy to help mediate the Kashmir dispute , but due to the deterioration of relations between India and Pakistan , the mission did not take place . Nimitz became a member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco . In 1948 , Nimitz sponsored a Bohemian dinner in honor of Army General Mark Clark , known for his campaigns in North Africa and Italy . Nimitz served as a regent of the University of California during 1948 – 1956 , where he had formerly been a faculty member as a professor of Naval Science for the NROTC program . Nimitz was honored on 17 October 1964 , by the University of California on " Nimitz Day " . Personal life . Nimitz married Catherine Vance Freeman ( 22 March 1892 - 1 February 1979 ) on 9 April 1913 , in Wollaston , Massachusetts . Nimitz and his wife had four children : Catherine Vance graduated from the University of California , Berkeley in 1934 , became a music librarian with the Washington D . C . Public Library , and married U . S . Navy Commander James Thomas Lay ( 1909 - 2001 ) , from St . Clair , Missouri , in Chester and Catherine ' s suite at the Fairfax Hotel in Washington D . C . on 9 March 1945 . She had met Lay in the summer of 1934 while visiting her parents in Southeast Asia . Chester W . Nimitz , Jr . , graduated from the U . S . Naval Academy in 1936 , and he served as a submariner in the Navy until his retirement in 1957 , reaching the ( post - retirement ) rank of Rear Admiral ; he served as chairman of PerkinElmer from 1969 - 1980 . Anna Elizabeth ( " Nancy " ) Nimitz was an expert on the Soviet economy at the RAND Corporation from 1952 until her retirement in the 1980s . Sister Mary Aquinas ( Nimitz ) became a sister in the Order of Preachers ( Dominicans ) , working at Dominican University of California teaching biology for 16 years , academic dean for 11 years , acting president for 1 year , and vice president for institutional research for 13 years before becoming the university ' s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator . She held this job until her death 27 February 2006 when she died due to cancer . Nimitz suffered a stroke , complicated by pneumonia , in late 1965 . In January 1966 he left the U . S . Naval Hospital ( Oak Knoll ) in Oakland to return home to his naval quarters . He died on the evening of 20 February 1966 , at Quarters One on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay . He was buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno , California on 24 February 1966 . Dates of rank . At the time of Nimitz ' s promotion to Rear Admiral , the United States Navy did not maintain a one - star rank ( Commodore ) . Nimitz was thus promoted directly from a Captain to a Rear Admiral . By Congressional Appointment , he skipped the rank of Vice Admiral and became an Admiral in December 1941 . Nimitz also never held the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade , as he was appointed a full Lieutenant after three years of service as an Ensign . For administrative reasons , Nimitz ' s naval record states that he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and Lieutenant on the same day . Memorials and legacy . Besides the honor of a United States Great Americans series 50¢ postage stamp , the following institutions and locations have been named in honor of Nimitz :