Rear Admiral Harley Dean Nygren (December 12, 1924 – November 17, 2019) was an American military officer who served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, its successor, the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps (ESSA Corps), and the ESSA Corps's successor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps). He served as the first Director of the NOAA Corps.
During his career, Nygren served on numerous geodetic field parties and aboard survey ships of the Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet, seeing service as far north as the Arctic and as far south as Antarctica. He also participated in many of the negotiations that resulted in the creation of the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) and its successor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Early life
Harley D. Nygren was born in Seattle, Washington in 1924. He began his career in the United States Government as a laborer in a United States Army warehouse.
United States Naval Reserve
The United States entered World War II as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and Nygren enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in 1942 at the age of 17. The Naval Reserve made him a seaman apprentice and assigned him to the Navy College Training Program. As a participant in the program, he attended the University of Washington, from which he graduated in 1945 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve.
Nygren served as damage control officer aboard the destroyer in 1946 as she was prepared for use as a target in the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll later that year. He then returned to Seattle, where he was assigned to the Submarine Battalion of the Organized Reserve while he spent a year pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. He received the degree in 1947.
Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and NOAA Corps career
Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps
Leaving the Naval Reserve, Nygren began his career in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in September 1947 as a civilian deck officer. He received training as an astronomic observer in 1948, and that year was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps. In early 1948 he was assigned to the ocean survey ship USC&GS Explorer (OSS 28) and spent six months on surveying activity in the Aleutian Islands, including significant time ashore on Kiska and on Rat Island. In 1949, he was assigned to the Coast and Geodetic Survey's Arctic Field Party, and spent February or March to September of each year from 1949 to 1951 operating in the Territory of Alaska surveying the Alaska North Slope. Surveying the coastline and the offshore area from Point Lay to Barter Island, the field party made the first accurate survey of the North Slope area. As a lieutenant (junior grade), Nygren used this newfound knowledge to serve as a maritime pilot for a convoy of United States Navy tank landing ships (LSTs) as it voyaged along the Alaska North Slope.
Leaving the Arctic Field Party in 1952, Nygren became executive officer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey coastal survey ship USC&GS Hodgson (CSS 26), operating in Oregon's Depoe Bay and Washington's Puget Sound. In 1953, he transferred to the ocean survey ship USC&GS Pathfinder (OSS 30), conducting hydrographic surveys in the western Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, and Cook Inlet. By the end of 1953 he was Pathfinder'''s operations officer.