Rear Admiral Presley Marion Rixey (14 July 1852, Culpeper, Virginia – 17 June 1928) was a Surgeon General of the United States Navy (1902–10) and personal physician to Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

[5] During his tenure as Surgeon General, Rixey strongly supported the foundation of a women's nursing corps for the Navy.

In his 1902 annual report, he stated that, "There has been a growing conviction in the minds of many of the most experienced medical officers of the service, especially since the war with Spain, that the employment of women for the nursing of the sick in our large hospitals would result in greater efficiency than has been obtained heretofore by the use of male nurses alone, and that such employment would not conflict with the conditions arising from the military character of the institution."

[6] He accompanied President Theodore Roosevelt during his November 1906 visit to the Panama Canal Zone, and reviewed health and sanitation procedures there.

Rixey received the Spanish Order of Naval Merit from King Alphonso XIII of Spain for assistance he gave to the crew of the replica of the Santa Maria after that vessel suffered an explosion in New York Harbor on May 26, 1893, on its way to the World's Columbian Exposition.