Eugene Parks "Dennis" Wilkinson (August 10, 1918 – July 11, 2013) was a United States Navy officer.

Wilkinson's commissioned service began in the heavy cruiser USS Louisville, in which he had duty in the engineering department until December 1941.

From June 1943 to October 1944 Wilkinson was in the crew of the submarine USS Darter which participated in four war patrols, including the Truk attack and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Officially detached from Darter in November 1944, following her loss the previous month, he returned to the United States.

Upon his transfer from the Naval Reserve to the U.S. Navy, he was ordered to the General Line School, Newport, Rhode Island, where he completed the assigned course in May 1947.

Joining then-Captain Hyman G. Rickover at Oak Ridge National Laboratory after passing one of the first of Rickover's many such interviews, the mathematically-gifted Wilkinson "ultimately developed the nuclear physics equations and formulas for the team...and for the final reactor design" of the prototype reactor for USS Nautilus.

In May 1950 he assumed command of the submarine USS Volador in which he participated in action in the Korean area from 12 August to 2 November 1951.

Wilkinson then carried out a series of temporary assignments by way of preparation for becoming prospective commanding officer of USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.

After spending the following academic year as a student at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, Wilkinson served as Commander Submarine Division 102, a subunit of Submarine Squadron 10 at New London, Connecticut, for a year and had brief temporary duty as commanding officer of Nautilus.

In September 1959 he became the initial commanding officer of the guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach, the U.S. Navy's first nuclear-powered surface ship.

After completion of that command and selection for promotion to rear admiral, he reported on 1 November 1963 as Director of the Submarine Warfare Division (OP-31), in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, D.C.

While in this role, he oversaw the development of the Navy's SubSafe program in response to the loss of USS Thresher in April 1963.

He also initiated the Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board (NPEB) in the Atlantic and Pacific fleet, in which operational Navy line officers took over nuclear submarine inspection responsibilities from civilians at Naval Reactors, as well as the associated Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination (ORSE).