Paul Golden Gaffney II, USN, was the seventh president of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, from 2003 to 2013, becoming president emeritus August 1, 2013. Gaffney graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1968. Upon graduation, he was selected for immediate graduate education and received a master's degree in Ocean Engineering from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He completed a year as a student and advanced research fellow at the Naval War College, graduating with highest distinction. He completed an M.B.A. at Jacksonville University. The University of South Carolina, Jacksonville University, and The Catholic University of America have awarded him honorary doctorates. He was president of the National Defense University from 2000 to 2003. Admiral Gaffney was the Chief of Naval Research with responsibility for science and technology investment for the Navy and Marine Corps from 1996-2000 and Commander of Naval Oceanography and Meteorology, 1994-1997. In July 2001 he was appointed by the President to the United States Commission on Ocean Policy, and served through the full term of the Commission until 2004. In August 2009, Gaffney was named the chair of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel, a panel created by statute to advise federal agencies regarding ocean science and management matters. In 2012 he co-chaired the Decadal Review of the US Ocean Exploration Program. In October 2014, he was appointed as the first chair of new Ocean Exploration Advisory Board, serving until 2017. Since 2015, he has been a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine's Gulf of Mexico Research Program Advisory Board. Gaffney's naval career spanned over three decades including duty at sea, overseas, and ashore in executive and command positions. He served in Japan, Vietnam, Spain, and Indonesia. While a military officer, his career focused on oceanography. He is the eponym of Gaffney Ridge, an undersea ridge in the South China Sea, 220 miles west of the Philippines. Gaffney also became the namesake of a supercomputer at the newest Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center at the John C. Stennis Space Center, in Hancock County, Miss., when he was honored by the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command on January 25, 2019. Gaffney is the recipient of a number of military decorations, the Naval War College's J. William Middendorf Prize for Strategic Research, the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Virginia Research and Technology Consortium, and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Navigator Award. He has served on several boards of higher education and was a member of the Ocean Studies Board of the United States National Research Council. He is a director of Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., and currently serves as a Fellow of the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University, and on the leadership council of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. In 2010, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for technical leadership in naval research and development and its impact on U.S. defense, ocean policy, and the Arctic. He chaired a National Academies’ Transportation Research Board study on domestic transportation of energy fluids and chaired a National Academies consensus study on the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current. He is a Trustee of the Ocean Exploration Trust. Gaffney retired from Monmouth University in August 2013. His contributions to the success of Monmouth University and its athletic programs during his tenure were noted in a February 2016 retrospective. Following his retirement from Monmouth University, Gaffney has remained active in academia, and was the guest speaker at the hooding ceremony for master's and doctoral graduates of the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in May 2014. On June 13, 2015, Gaffney was honored by the Aquarium of the Pacific with a 2015 Ocean Conservation Award." On May 7, 2016, Gaffney was the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor sponsored by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. At a Jan. 25, 2019 ceremony Gaffney was one of three honorees inducted into the first class of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Hall of Fame. Gaffney was lauded as the first naval oceanographer to attain the rank of vice admiral who "attained the visionary goal of making Naval Oceanography a true world-class supercomputing facility and delivered three oceanographic survey ships into the operational fleet—USNS Pathfinder, USNS Sumner and USNS Bowditch." More recently, Gaffney co-authored a March, 2020, editorial with Jesse H. Ausubel in response to the economic effects of the coronavirus on maritime and coastal industries, arguing for increased investment from the United States in the Blue Economy.
