Thomas J. Cutler


Thomas Joshua Cutler is a retired United States naval officer, naval historian, author, and editor. He is "one of the most prolific authors in the history of the Naval Institute Press in terms of sold books."

Family, early life, and education

The son of Torrence Manasseh and Helen Margaret Cutler, Thomas J. Cutler was born in Baltimore, Maryland on 30 August 1947. He graduated from Towson State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969 and later earned a Master of Arts degree at Norwich University in 1988. He married Deborah Walsh Welch Cutler in 1971 and the couple had two children.

Naval career and education

Cutler enlisted in the United States Navy in 1965 and rose to become a Gunner's Mate Second Class. Commissioned an ensign in 1969, he rose through the officer grades until he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in 1979 remaining on active duty until 1990. His active duty included an in-country combat tour in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, command of small craft, service in two aircraft carriers, three destroyers, and a guided-missile cruiser. While at the United States Naval Academy, serving between 1981 and 1990, where he was senior lecturer and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Seamanship and Navigation Department, and later, Associate Chairman of the History Department, he was awarded the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education.

Civilian career

Cutler founded and served as the first Director of the Walbrook Maritime Academy in Baltimore, also commanding the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit there. In 1981, he became an associate editor of the U.S. Naval Institute and rose to become the Institute's Director of Professional Publishing and currently holds the Gordon England Chair of Professional Naval Literature.

Awards

Some of Cutler's works have been selections of the History Book Club, Military Book Club, and Book of the Month Club.