News Release
Remembering Phil DePoy, 1935–2025
The CNA family is greatly saddened by the loss of Dr. Phil E. DePoy, who died July 12 at the age of 89. DePoy was president of CNA from 1985 to 1990, a key time during which he led the organization to independence under a board of trustees. In total, he spent more than three decades as a CNA analyst and leader. In 1989, he received the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest recognition the Secretary of the Navy can pay to a civilian. He later reflected, “I can’t imagine that any other career would have been as rewarding in so many ways.”
“Phil hired me in 1988 and helped form my first impressions of what effective analysis is,” said CNA CEO Dr. Katherine McGrady. “Throughout my career at CNA, I often thought to myself, ‘Is this what Phil would do?’ He was a guiding light to CNA even after he retired. It’s impossible to express how much we miss him.”
DePoy first became aware of the organization while at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a graduate physics course led by the founder of CNA, Philip Morse. The professor’s stories about scientists helping the US Navy succeed in World War II caught his attention, and DePoy applied before he had completed his PhD.
His career at CNA was largely shaped by the Cold War and by the CNA Field Program, which embeds analysts with Navy and Marine Corps commands for periods of up to a few years. In his first decade, he served with fleet commands homeported in Hawaii, Japan, and Italy, spending much of that time at sea. He also worked on missile and fighter jet tactics at Air Development Squadrons Four and Five in California.
He was very active in analysis during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and took his first leadership position as the director of the Southeast Asia Analysis Division of the Operations Evaluation Group. The group, known by the initials OEG, runs the Field Program. By 1974, he was promoted to director of OEG as a whole, and he led the group for the next 15 years, through some of the most intense years of the Cold War, before being named president of the Center for Naval Analyses.
DePoy saw that CNA needed to function as an independent not-for-profit. Since its founding, CNA’s predecessor organizations had been overseen by a series of universities and private institutions. Jamil Nakhleh, who served as his deputy for many years, credits the successful transition to the respect that Navy leadership had for DePoy. “The primary factor that guaranteed the continuing existence of CNA is the integrity of Phil DePoy,” Nakhleh said.
CNA is planning an event to celebrate the life and career of Phil DePoy at a later date.
CNA is a not-for-profit analytical organization dedicated to the safety and security of the nation. With nearly 700 scientists, analysts, and professional staff across the world, CNA's mission is to provide data-driven, innovative solutions to our nation's toughest problems. It operates the Center for Naval Analyses— the federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) of the Department of the Navy—as well as the Institute for Public Research. The Center for Naval Analyses provides objective analytics to inform decision-making by military leaders and ultimately improve the lethality and effectiveness of the joint force. The Institute for Public Research leverages data analytics and sophisticated methods to support federal, state, and local government officials as they work to protect the homeland, the American people, and industry.
Note to writers and editors: CNA is not an acronym and is correctly referenced as “CNA, an independent not-for-profit analytical organization.” Please do not refer to us as a think tank.