Dan has a long history of service to his country and to the diving industry. Dan was born in South Florida and was in and around water all of his life. As an adolescent he first tried diving in Biscayne Bay and was hooked. Dan first became a certified diver in 1964, and after a stint in the Navy, which included being an Air-Rescue Swimmer, he became a SCUBA instructor and taught his first course in 1972. During that time Dan started and headed up the Wright State University (Ohio) Scuba Program where he stayed until 1988, having developed it into one of the largest university diving programs in the US. Along the way, Dan “immersed” himself in water safety and rescue programs, developing and learning techniques and bringing them to the diving community worldwide.
In the early 1980s Dan became involved with the newly formed Divers Alert Network, ads a Regional Volunteer Coordinator and Instructor. In 1988 Florida State University in Tallahassee recruited Dan to be the Associate Diving Officer. In 1991, Dan became the Training Coordinator for Divers Alert Network, responsible for developing and implementing DAN training programs including the internationally successful DAN Oxygen First Aid Course.
Dan has authored and contributed to many books and magazine articles including co-author of Scuba Diving Safety and DAN's Pocket Guide for Diving Safety series. He has been a featured speaker at Beneath the Sea, Our World-Underwater, Underwater Canada, Divescapes, Boston Sea Rovers, International Conference on Underwater Education, SeaSpace, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) and many others. He has also been the recipient of many awards for diving safety including Diver of the Year from Beneath the Sea, the Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the NOGI Award from the Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences, the Our World-Underwater Award and DEMA’s “Reaching Out” Award. Dan has also been inducted into the Hall of Fame for Divers with Disabilities.
Dan continues to serve the industry in many ways including being a recent member of the DEMA Board of Directors as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors (and Past President) of the Historical Diving Society (USA), and past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences.