Edward Clifford Kalbfus (November 24, 1877 – September 6, 1954), nicknamed "Old Dutch", was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy who was commander of the Battle Force of the United States Fleet from 1938 to 1939 and President of the Naval War College from 1934 to 1936 and 1939 to 1942.

Kalbfus was born in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania in present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to the former Mary Electra Jones and Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, a nationally acclaimed wildlife conservationist who served as chief game protector of the state of Pennsylvania and executive secretary of the Pennsylvania State Game Commission.

He attended Selwyn Hall in Reading, Pennsylvania before securing an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. As a midshipman at the Naval Academy, he played football and was captain of the baseball team during his first class year, and trained afloat during the summers aboard the Naval Academy Practice Ship Monongahela in 1895, 1896, and 1897. In the summer of 1898, during the Spanish–American War, he served aboard the battleship Oregon, witnessing the sinking of the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes and the Battle of Santiago Bay. Later that summer he participated in the blockade of Cuba aboard the steam yacht Wasp, the screw sloop Lancaster, and the gunboat Newport. After a final training cruise aboard the battleship Indiana, he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1899 and commenced the required two years of precommissioning sea duty as a passed midshipman.

Voyaging to the Philippine Islands aboard the collier USS Scindia, he participated in the Philippine Insurrection in 1900 and 1901 aboard the gunboat Petrel and the cargo ship General Alava He received his ensign's commission on July 27, 1901.

In November 1902, he reported aboard the protected cruiser Cincinnati, which was then operating in the Caribbean Sea, but soon found himself back in the Philippines when Cincinnati was assigned to the Asiatic Station the next year. In April 1904 he returned to the United States aboard the protected cruiser Albany, reporting in September to the Naval Academy, where he spent two years as an instructor in the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Construction and as senior engineering officer of the training ship Newark during the annual midshipman cruises. After the 1906 training cruise he remained aboard Newark when it sailed to participate in the imposition of American military rule in Cuba following the resignation of President Tomás Estrada Palma.

In November 1906, he was assigned as senior engineering officer aboard the new battleship Kansas prior to its commissioning at Philadelphia Navy Yard on April 18, 1907. Kansas conducted shakedown training near Provincetown, Massachusetts later that year, before joining the Great White Fleet at Hampton Roads, Virginia in December. Kalbfus served as the battleship's gunnery officer while it participated in the Great White Fleet's historic round-the-world cruise. Kansas returned with the fleet to Hampton Roads in February 1909 and Kalbfus went ashore in May 1910 to begin a three-year tour at the Bureau of Navigation.

He returned to sea in November 1913, reporting first aboard the battleship Arkansas, then as fleet engineer and aide to the commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and finally as navigator of the battleship Wyoming. During this period he took charge of the Mexican railway system during the Atlantic Fleet's occupation of Veracruz. He reported to the Navy Department in 1915 as assistant director of gunnery exercises and engineering competitions. In 1917 he was a member of the Board of Appraisal of merchant and private vessels in New York.

During World War I, Kalbfus, then a captain, received his first command, the transport ship Pocahontas, which ferried troops to Europe as part of the Cruiser and Transport Force under Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves. On May 2, 1918, Pocahontas was attacked by a German submarine that bombarded her with 5.9-inch (150 mm) shells. The ship was not directly hit and suffered no casualties. Kalbfus ordered return fire, but the submarine was outside the range of Pocahontas' guns, so the transport set an evasive zig-zag course, then fled at full speed, setting a record 16.2 knots (30.0 km/h) that allowed Pocahontas to outrun the submarine twenty minutes after the attack began.