Byron McCandless Commodore Byron McCandless ( September 5 , 1881 – May 30 , 1967 ) was a longtime U . S . Navy officer who was awarded the Navy Cross during World War I and the Legion of Merit during World War II . He was also prominent in the field of vexillology ( the study of flags ) , and helped design two separate versions of the Flag of the President of the United States . He was the father of Bruce McCandless , also a naval officer , and the grandfather of NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II . Family and early life . Byron McCandless was born in Endicott , Nebraska . His grandfather was David McCanles , who was killed by Wild Bill Hickok in 1861 at the Rock Creek Station , Nebraska shoot - out . His father was Julius McCandless ( born 1851 ) , who later moved his family to Florence , Colorado where he operated a hardware store . ( Florence had been founded by one of Julius ' uncles , James McCandless , and named for one of James ' daughters . ) Byron McCandless attended the Colorado School of Mines , and in 1899 played one season as quarterback for the University of Colorado football team . He later went to the United States Naval Academy where he graduated in 1905 . He married Velma May Kitson ( a daughter of May Kitson ) on September 29 , 1909 . Their son Bruce was born on August 12 , 1911 . The couple also had a daughter named Velma , born in Brooklyn , New York , on June 4 , 1914 . Naval career . Following his graduation , McCandless sailed with the Great White Fleet on the USS " Maine " . He was a gunnery and turret officer , and later became the flag lieutenant and aide to Rear Admiral Charles J . Badger , the commander of the Atlantic Fleet . When Admiral William S . Benson became the first Chief of Naval Operations in 1915 , he chose McCandless to be on his three - person staff . Later , McCandless also became an aide to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels . During World War I , McCandless commanded the destroyer USS " Caldwell " , and was awarded the Navy Cross . His citation read : After the war , McCandless was the executive officer on the battleship USS " Kansas " . He later commanded the USS " Parrott " from 1921 to 1923 , the oiler USS " Brazos " in 1927 - 28 , and the cruiser USS " Raleigh " . McCandless also commanded Destroyer Division 30 and served as the Operations Officer for Destroyer Squadrons of the Scouting Fleet . McCandless attended the Naval War College , then became the Director of the Training Division in the Navy ' s Bureau of Navigation , and later headed the Branch Hydrographic Office in Boston . After completing another course at the Naval War College , he served as the Chief of Staff for Destroyers , Battle Force , from 1935 to 1937 . McCandless became the commanding officer of the Destroyer Base , San Diego in January 1937 . He was transferred to the retired list on June 30 , 1940 , but remained on active duty and in command . He oversaw an expansion in scope of the base , adding fleet training schools and an amphibious force training unit , and accordingly it was renamed the Repair Base , San Diego in 1942 . Helped by the addition of several floating dry docks , between 1943 and 1945 the base performed conversion , overhaul , maintenance and battle damage repair to more than 5 , 000 ships . He remained the commander until the end of the war , leaving on September 8 , 1945 . For his service at the base , McCandless was awarded the Legion of Merit . He retired on September 25 , 1946 . During his career , McCandless made several inventions . One of them was the " Jeheemy " , an apparatus used to salvage landing craft swamped and stranded on invasion beachheads . It consisted of portable crane hauled along the beach by a tractor . McCandless also patented several other inventions , including a camera and other photographic equipment , a projection system , and a portable lamp . Vexillology . McCandless developed in interest in flags , a field later called vexillology , and in 1917 was described by National Geographic Magazine as the " foremost flag expert of the United States Government and probably the leading authority in the world on flag usages among maritime nations " . McCandless authored almost the entire October 1917 issue of National Geographic , their " Flag Number " , depicting nearly 1200 world flags in color and including a history of the American flag . In 1923 , McCandless discovered the 1779 Dutch sketches of the Serapis flag in the records of the Chicago Historical Society , removing any doubt as to what the flags actually looked like . In 1915 , Woodrow Wilson decided to design a new flag for the presidency , replacing the separate flags then in use by the Army and the Navy . McCandless , the Aide to the Secretary of the Navy at the time , participated in the discussions along with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D . Roosevelt and Assistant Secretary of War Henry Breckinridge . McCandless suggested a design which added four stars to the Navy ' s version ( which used the Great Seal on a blue background ) , as this would be enough to distinguish it from the Army infantry flag . McCandless then met with Wilson to demonstrate the proposed design ; Wilson liked it but wanted to use the eagle from the presidential seal instead . This became the final design , and Wilson issued on May 29 , 1916 to officially define it . In March 1945 , Franklin Roosevelt wondered if the four stars were still appropriate , given the creation of the five - star Fleet Admiral and General of the Army ranks during World War II . Despite initial responses which recommended no change ( the stars were not supposed to be indicative of rank ) , Roosevelt persisted and had a message sent to his old colleague McCandless , by this time a Commodore and commanding the Naval Repair Base in San Diego . Roosevelt died on April 12 before McCandless could reply , but Truman still expressed interest , so on May 29 McCandless sent a long letter containing a history of the President ' s flag , dozens of attachments and several recommendations for a redesign . McCandless primarily suggested using four six - pointed stars , each made up with twelve smaller stars . The six stars would indicate a higher rank , while the 48 total stars would represent the states . Truman ( as a civilian ) did not like the idea of designating rank , so instead requested a simple circle of 48 stars . McCandless accordingly made up a new drawing with this design . Further alterations ( turning the eagle ' s head to its right , and changing the eagle to full color ) were made by Arthur E . DuBois of the Heraldic Section of the Army ' s Office of the Quartermaster General ( the forerunner of the Army Institute of Heraldry ) . This design was used for the presidential coat of arms , seal , and flag , and was officially defined with issued on October 25 , 1945 . The accompanying press release discussed McCandless ' role at length . It is still the current design for the presidential seal and flag , as the only changes since have been to add more stars after Alaska and Hawaii became states . In 1962 , McCandless began writing an extensive book on the Flag of the United States in collaboration with Annapolis classmate Rear Admiral William R . Furlong , but died in 1967 well before the book was finished . Furlong continued working on the book , and in 1971 turned over more than a thousand pages to the Smithsonian Institution , the sponsor ( Furlong himself died in 1976 ) . Dr . Harold D . Langley of the Smithsonian eventually edited down the manuscript to a 260 - page book , " So Proudly We Hail : The History of the United States Flag " , which was published in 1981 . Scott Guenther , an author of another flag book in 1990 , ranked it along with a few others as " seminal works of scholarship on the history of the American flag " . Byron McCandless died on May 30 , 1967 in Mariposa , California . In 1971 , the frigate USS " McCandless " was named in honor of both Byron McCandless and his son , Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless ( who died in 1968 ) . There is also a street named after Commodore McCandless at the San Diego Naval Repair Base .