Robert 'Yogi' Kaufman, 82; Navy Admiral, Photographer

Robert Young "Yogi" Kaufman, 82, a retired submarine commander and later a wildlife photographer in Alaska, died Sept. 26 of complications from Parkinson's disease at Arleigh Burke Pavilion in McLean. He was a Potomac resident.

Adm. Kaufman was born in Roanoke and grew up in the District, where he attended McKinley Tech High School and graduated from Devitt Prep in the late 1930s. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1945 (class of 1946), and became a submariner.

A Navy yeoman in about 1957 christened him "Yogi" -- noting the middle initial Y -- while typing out his orders. At Kaufman's next duty station, the nickname stuck as a way of distinguishing him among five Bobs in the unit. Adm. Kaufman, a New York Yankees and Yogi Berra fan, was pleased; years later, he named his consulting company Yogi Inc.

One of "Rickover's boys" (proteges of Adm. Hyman Rickover), he was among the first Navy officers to receive nuclear training. He became executive officer of USS Seawolf, the Navy's second nuclear submarine, and also commanded USS Cavalla, USS Scorpion and USS Will Rogers. Under his command, the Scorpion set a world submergence record of 70 days. He was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious service during a period in 1962."

Adm. Kaufman was among a group of submarine officers who set the design specifications of the Los Angeles class of attack submarines and, later, for the Trident class of missile submarines. He retired in 1981 as director of command, control, communications and intelligence.

In retirement, he served on the board of Pennsylvania Power and Light and consulted for Boeing Inc.

He also began a new career as a wildlife photographer in partnership with his Alaska-based son. The Kaufmans produced five coffee-table books: "Untamed Alaska"(1987); "Silent Chase: Submarines of the U.S. Navy"(1989); "Sharks of Steel" (1993), about U.S., Russian and Japanese subs; "City at Sea" (1995), about aircraft carriers; and "Untamed Alaska" (1997), 10th anniversary edition.

"Sharks of Steel" was a companion book to a Discovery Channel program on submarines. The program featured the retired admiral, then 70, in a Naval Academy appearance challenging midshipmen to match his feat of doing one-armed push-ups while a volunteer lay on his back. The admiral, a boxer during his academy days, bested his competition handily.

His wife, Lucille W. Kaufman, died in 1995.

Survivors include two children, Connie Robinson of Washington and Steve Kaufman of Homer and Cantwell, Alaska; and one granddaughter.