Raymond P. Rodgers

Rear Admiral Raymond Perry Rodgers (December 20, 1849 - December 28, 1925) was an officer in the United States Navy. He succeeded Lt. Theodorus B.M. Mason as the second head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Born in Washington, D.C., his parents were Rear Adm. C.R.P. Rodgers, and the former Julia Slidell and the brother of another rear admiral, Thomas Slidell Rodgers. He was also the grand-nephew to two renowned commodores of the Navy, Matthew C. Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry.

Like his predessor in the ONI, Rodgers also graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1868 and was promoted through the grades, ultimately reaching the rank of rear admiral on July 4, 1908.

Then-Lt. Perry succeeded Lt. Theodorus Mason in April 1885 as Chief Intelligence Officer of the ONI, and he fostered closer ties between the agency and the State Department, as they shared a mutual interest in Panama, Samoa and Hawaii.

His tenure was also marked by the agency's first forays in cryptography, and further encouraged research into new advances into naval technology through naval attachés, as well as keeping close watch over European colonial interests in South America. It was also at this time that the ONI was transferred from the Bureau of Navigation to the office of the Secretary of the Navy: this increased the demand on the ONI for more information, and a weakness in the gathering of intelligence would be revealed by the Spanish-American War.

During that war Rodgers served as executive officer of the battleship USS "Iowa". For his "imminent and conspicuous conduct" in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba which destroyed Admiral Pascual Cervera's squadron, he advanced five numbers in grade.

Rodgers, who held the rank of captain by April 1906, was reappointed Chief Intelligence Officer, succeeding Cmdr. Seaton Schroeder. He was in turn succeeded by Capt. Charles E. Vreeland in May 1909. He retired shortly thereafter.

He was married to the former Gertrude Stuyvesant and had one daughter, Julia.

He died on December 28, 1925, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.