Lawrence York Spear was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 naval officer and businessman who spent the majority of his career working for the Electric Boat Company.

Biography

Born in Warren, Ohio

Warren, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 46,832 people, 19,288 households and 12,035 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,912.4 people per square mile . There were 21,279 housing units at an average density of 1,322.9 per square mile...

, Spear graduated from the United States Naval Academy

United States Naval Academy

The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...

 in Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...

 in 1890. Lieutenant Spear went to Scotland to attend the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

. After returning, he was asked to inspect and oversee the projects that were taking place at several shipyards across America. One of those shipyards was the Crescent Shipyard

Crescent Shipyard

Crescent Shipyard, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, built a number of ships for the United States Navy and allied nations as well during their production run, which lasted about ten years while under the Crescent name and banner. Production of these ships began before the Spanish-American war and...

 of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where the United States Navy's first submarines were built by John P. Holland's Holland Torpedo Boat Company. Later on, this company changed its name when Isaac Rice

Isaac Rice

Isaac Leopold Rice was a U.S. inventor and a chess patron and author.- Biography :...

 merged his other holdings (Electric Storage and Electo-Dynamic) with Holland's to create the Electric Boat Company.

In 1902 Spear resigned his Navy commission and joined Electric Boat as a naval constructor He was appointed Vice-President when Holland resigned in April 1904. Spear served as President from 1942 to 1947, running the company during World War II, when it was a leading producer of submarines. He served as Chairman of the Board from 1947 until his death on 9 September 1950. Electric Boat changed its name to General Dynamics in 1952 under the company's new Chairman and CEO, John Jay Hopkins

John Jay Hopkins

John Jay Hopkins was founder and president of General Dynamics from 1952 to 1957.Hopkins was born in Santa Ana, California....

.

Honors

The submarine tender

Submarine tender

A submarine tender is a type of ship that supplies and supports submarines.Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally do not have the ability to carry large amounts of food, fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies, nor to carry a full array of maintenance equipment and...

, built by the General Dynamics Shipbuilding Division in Quincy, Massachusetts, was named after him.