Some people don’t even live to 63. That’s how many years Hyman Rickover served in the US Navy (the longest stretch of active service in US military history), before retiring at the ripe old age of 81 in 1982. Saturday the 27th would have marked his 106th Birthday. So why do we toast him, besides for his incredible employee-of-the-century dedication?

Because without Mr. Rickover, there would be no Harrison Ford submarine thriller “K-19: The Widowmaker.” Rickover was the “Father of the nuclear Navy,” responsible for putting the first nuclear-powered submarines into action and scaring the pants off the Russians at the height of the Cold War. Convinced that nuclear reactors were the way of the naval future, he spearheaded the launch of the USS Nautilus in 1955 and personally oversaw the development of the US Naval reactor program, as well as the first nuclear power plants established on dry land. Rickover’s ships had an examplary safety record, unlike the Russians (see Harrison Ford reference, above) and other competitors.

Today, nuclear power generates almost 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, according to the US Census Bureau.