World War II Medal of Honor Recipient. He was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy at the start of World War II, and was serving as the commander of the Navy's Battleship Division One at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when the forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked on December 7, 1941. He was killed on the deck of the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) during the attack. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1884, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1906. While serving as an ensign on the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-16), he sailed around the world with the "Great White Fleet" from 1907 to 1909. He served as an instructor at the Naval Academy in 1916 and 1917, and during World War I, he served on the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40). He had numerous flag commands throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1938 he became commander of the USS Arizona. In February of 1940, he was promoted to Rear Admiral and assigned as Commander Battleship Division One and Chief of Staff to Commander, Battleships, Battle Force. On the morning of December 7, 1941, he was on board the USS Arizona while it was docked in Pearl Harbor. He immediately went to the bridge of the Arizona during the Japanese surprise attack. The ship was then hit by several bombs, one of which penetrated her forecastle and detonated her forward ammunition magazines. The resulting massive explosion wrecked the ship's forward hull, collapsing her forward superstructure and causing her to sink, with the loss of over 1,100 of her crewmen. Admiral Kidd was killed on the bridge; only his Naval Academy ring was recovered. The highest-ranking officer to lose his life during the attack, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and actions there. Three United States Navy destroyers were named in honor: the World War II "Fletcher"-class destroyer USS Kidd (DD-661), which served during from 1943 to 1974 and is now a museum ship in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; the guided missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-996), commissioned in 1981, and decommissioned in 1998; and the "Arleigh Burke"-class guided missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100), which was commissioned in 2007. His son, Isaac Campbell Kidd Jr., would go on to serve in the United States Navy, rising to the rank of Admiral and commander of the Atlantic Fleet. Admiral Kidd Sr.'s name is inscribed on the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and a cenotaph was erected for him in the family plot where his wife and son are buried the cemetery at the United States Naval Academy.