016 John Claman
John
and
his wife, Joyce.
Basics:
- Born 1938 in Roanoke Virginia
- Elementary School- Harrisonburg, Virginia
- High School- Lansdowne-Aldan, Pennsylvania, Class of 1956
- Baccalaureate-U.S Naval Academy Class of 1960
- Advanced degrees-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class of 1969
- Married to Joyce Gallagher; four children- Kelly, John, Joe, Jeff; and 5 grandchildren
- 34 years in the U.S. Navy; retired as Rear Admiral USN,
- 10 years in private industry; retired as a vice president with American Management Systems Inc.
- Currently residing in Fairfax and Wintergreen, Virginia; President, Wintergreen Performing Arts, Inc., and a part-time business consultant
After high school graduation I immediately entered the U.S Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated with the Class of 1960. During this time my folks and sister had moved to Utah, so I never returned to the greater Philadelphia area, except for an occasional Army-Navy game. At the Naval Academy I lettered in lightweight crew and sang in the chapel choir.
Upon graduation from USNA, I was assigned to an old WW II destroyer for 3 years out of San Diego, CA, making two deployments to the western Pacific (Philippines, China, Japan, Thailand). I then entered submarine school and again spent 3 years at sea on a WW II diesel submarine out of San Diego, making another western Pacific deployment.
I entered MIT and earned an MS in Naval Architecture and an Engineering degree in Naval Engineering. I spent the next 25 years in and out of advance bases, naval and private shipyards, the Pentagon and Fleet Staffs, and design bureaus-- planning, designing, fixing and building submarines and ships.
Joyce
and I made 10 major house moves, 6 of them either coast to coast or overseas.
Our children were born in San Diego, Boston and San Francisco. Joyce somehow
persevered in all of this, while also being a practicing nurse and real estate
agent as the economy dictated.
Some
of the most interesting assignments were fixing Ballistic Missile submarines in
Guam in the 1970s and being the Director of Ship Design at the Naval Sea
Systems Command during the Reagan naval buildup in the 1980s. I presided over
the design of the “Arleigh Burke” class guided-missile destroyers and the
“Wasp” class big-deck amphibious ships during the first half of the 1980s. I
was also the program manager for the “Los Angeles” class attack nuclear
submarine major procurement during the mid 1980s. My final tour was as the
Naval Sea Systems Command Deputy Commander for Naval Shipyards and Supervisors
of Shipbuilding during the first half of the 1990s when the nation began a
post-“Berlin Wall” military retrenchment and closing of bases, 4 of them Naval
Shipyards under my wing.
In 1994 I retired from the Navy and shifted gears, going into private industry as a business consultant with American Management Systems, Inc., an information technology company based in Fairfax Virginia, doing business with the telecommunications and financial sectors and state, local and federal governments. I had the good fortune to participate in the information technology revolution and built a practice helping commercial and government clients “re-engineer” themselves.
Joyce and I traveled extensively during this period to Europe and South America. Our children completed college as computer scientists (2), a graphic designer (1) and a business/marketing professional (1); and they all work and live in the Virginia area. They have given us the ultimate in grandparent perks as we “help” them with their 5 children. We now split our time between homes in Fairfax and Wintergreen, Virginia, a ski/golf resort and rural living community near Charlottesville in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. That’s where I suddenly remembered my high school musical interests (recall Mssrs. Corbin and Mitchell in orchestra and band) and became active in a small but growing classical music performing arts organization in Wintergreen. I’ve been President since 2004 and life is good!
and
the grandkids.