Albert Smith Bigelow

Albert Smith Bigelow (1 May 1906 – 6 October 1993) was a pacifist and former United States Navy Commander, who came to prominence in the 1950s as the skipper of the Golden Rule, the first vessel to attempt disruption of a nuclear test in protest against nuclear weapons. Early life Bigelow (1906-1993) was the son of Albert Francis Bigelow (1880-1958), and Gladys Williams. Albert's father was a partner in the Boston law firm Warren, Hogue & Bigelow from 1908-1914. His sister was Martha Bigelow, who married Theodore L. Eliot, the grandson of Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard. Bigelow was a graduate of both Harvard University, in 1929, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in architecture. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, Stylus, Iroquois and Fly Clubs, as well as a member of the Harvard hockey team. Navy Service Bigelow served in the United States Navy during World War II, first as commander of a submarine chaser patrolling the Solomon Islands, and later as captain of the destroyer escort On August 6, 1945, Bigelow was on the bridge of the Peterson as it sailed into Pearl Harbor, when he heard news of the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima. He resigned from the US Naval Reserve a month before becoming eligible for his pension.