Albert Smith Bigelow (May 1, 1906 – October 6, 1993) was an American pacifist and former United States Navy Commander, who came to prominence in the 1950s as the skipper of the Golden Rule, the first vessel to attempt disruption of a nuclear test in protest against nuclear weapons.

Early life

Bigelow (1906–1993) was the son of Albert Francis Bigelow (1880–1958), and Gladys Williams. Albert's father was a partner in the Boston law firm Warren, Hogue & Bigelow from 1908 to 1914. His sister was Martha Bigelow, who married Theodore L. Eliot, the grandson of Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard. While at Harvard, he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, Stylus, Iroquois and Fly Clubs, as well as a member of the Harvard hockey team.

Sailing The Golden Rule

In February, 1958, Bigelow set sail for the Eniwetok Proving Ground, the Atomic Energy Commission's atmospheric test site in the Marshall Islands, in the Golden Rule, a ketch. He was accompanied by crew members James Peck, George Willoughby, William R. Huntington, and Orion Sherwood. The voyage had been deliberately and widely publicized, and while the Golden Rule was en route to Hawaii, the Atomic Energy Commission hastily issued a regulation banning US citizens from sailing into the Proving Grounds.

When they arrived in Hawaii, the crew of the Golden Rule were issued a court summons, resulting in a temporary injunction against any attempt to sail to the test site. Bigelow chose to break the injunction on May 1, but the Golden Rule was intercepted by the US Coast Guard only from Honolulu. A second attempt on June 4 was also unsuccessful – the crew were arrested, charged with contempt of court and sentenced to sixty days in jail.

In his later years, from 1971 to 1975, he was a trustee to The Meeting School, a Quaker school in Rindge, New Hampshire.

Personal life

Bigelow married his first wife, Josephine Rotch, the daughter of Arthur and Helen (née Ludington) Rotch, on June 21, 1929. She was a debutante of 1927 and was a member of the Junior League and Vincent Club of Boston. She, however, had resumed her affair with Harry Crosby within two months of their marriage, and then, on 10 December that year she and Crosby were found dead in an apparent murder suicide.

Two years later, Albert married Sylvia Weld, daughter of Rudolph and Sylvia Caroline (née Parsons) Weld, on September 10, 1931. Sylvia was a granddaughter of Gen. William Barclay Parsons (1859–1932), the chief engineer of New York's first subway. Her great-grandparents were William Barclay Parsons (1828–1887) and Eliza (née Livingston) Parsons. Together, they had three daughters, Lisa, Kate, and Mary, their youngest, who died when she was seven months old.

Bigelow died, aged 87, at a nursing home in Walpole, Massachusetts in 1993.

See also

  • List of peace activists

References

  • Papers of Albert Bigelow, Swarthmore College Peace Collection