While on board USS Missouri, he won commendations from the President and Secretary of the Navy for his conduct at the time of a disastrous turret explosion.

An expert on guns and explosives, he was made Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance shortly before the United States entered World War I.

After his retirement in 1925, Rear Admiral Earle served as president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute until his death.

[3][4] Earle, well loved as WPI's sixth president implemented a five-year plan which brought the students a swimming pool and a new hall named after R. Sanford Riley among other needed campus improvements.

The Naval Weapons Station Earle (New Jersey) was also named (in 1943) to honor the admiral because of his strong association with ordnance projects.