National Association of Underwater Instructors - History

History

NAUI was founded by Albert Tillman and Neal Hess in 1959. In August 1960, NAUI's first Instructor Certification Course was held at the Houston’s Shamrock Hilton Hotel with 72 candidates. The following year, in October 1961, NAUI was incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit educational organization. Al Tillman was the first President and Neal Hess, the Executive Secretary. Other original board members included John C. Jones of the Red Cross and Garry Howland of the United States Air Force. NAUI Worldwide is an international non-profit training agency.

Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the inventor of the aqualung, was on the board of advisors of NAUI, as was Albert R. Behnke, a pioneer of diving medicine. Actor Lloyd Bridges was the first honorary NAUI instructor member. He played frogman "Mike Nelson" in the American television series Sea Hunt, which popularized scuba diving. Buster Crabbe, the famous olympic swimmer and movie star, was a NAUI instructor. Other celebrities who are certified NAUI divers include Kevin Costner, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cameron Diaz; Tiger Woods is a NAUI Divemaster member.

Many of the first generation of diving safety officers of the top universities, colleges and institutes of technology in the United States were NAUI members and made significant contributions to NAUI's programs, including: Lee Somers University of Michigan, James Stewart Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Richard Bell University of California, Davis, Henry Viex United States Military Academy, Lloyd Austin University of California, Berkeley, Mark Flahan California State University, San Diego, Phillip Sharkey University of Rhode Island, Ronnie D'Amico California State University, Long Beach, Walt Hendricks, Sr. University of Puerto Rico, Glen Egstrom University of California, Los Angeles, and John Heine Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. These institutions, and others, belong to the American Academy of Underwater Sciences and, while their training programs greatly exceed minimum NAUI requirements, for the convenience of the participants in their scientific diving training programs, certifications are often arranged through NAUI. Many governmental agencies in the United States do the same, including the US Navy, SEALs, Army Special Forces, and NASA