"He was a cocky little son-of-a-gun, and very intelligent," said his widow, Wyona Ingles. "He loved that Navy and the uniform that he wore."

He was hand-picked in 1954 by legendary Adm. Hyman G. Rickover to serve as the first chief of the boat aboard USS NAUTILUS SSN-571, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.

"He and Rickover got to be the best of friends," Wyona Ingles said.

Mr. Ingles was born July 31, 1916, in Rushville, Ill., to Frank and Nancy (Rittenhouse) Ingles. In 1935, he joined the Army, then transferred to the Navy in 1938.

His first sea tour was aboard the aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA, but for the rest of his career he served with the submarine Navy as a torpedoman.

During World War II, he made 13 war patrols aboard submarines, several of them aboard USS PADDLE. Toward the end of the war, on April 22, 1945, he and the former Wyona C. Janke were married at Napa, Calif.

In the 1950s, when the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS NAUTILUS, was being built, he applied to be the Chief Of The Boat.

He was interviewed for the job by Rickover, who reportedly told Mr. Ingles to "get the hell out" of his office after the interview. A few days later, a Navy captain called Mr. Ingles and told him Rickover had picked him for the job.

He later served aboard one of the Navy's first nuclear missile submarines, USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT SSBN-600.

In 1958, when the Navy created a new top enlisted rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, he was named the service's first Master Chief Torpedoman.

Mr. Ingles moved to Port Orchard in 1964 and retired from the Navy in 1965. He worked for a time at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, then transferred to the newly created Naval Submarine Base at Bangor in the early 1970s, where he was a missile assemblyman for Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. In 1995, he and his wife moved to Olympia.

He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a life member of the Masonic Lodge in Illinois.

He is survived by his wife, of Olympia; a son, Marine Lt. Col. Ralph Ingles of San Diego; two daughters, Dodie Ness of Port Orchard and Debi Young of Olympia; a brother, William of Bellevue; a sister, Myrtle Ellen Haynes of Fort Meyers, Fla.; and eight grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Heather Ness.

At his request, there will be no public service.

Memorial donations may be made to the USS Nautilus Museum, Submarine Force Museum, Naval Submarine Base, Groton, CT 06349-5571.