How I Got Into Scuba Diving Part 2

I dropped out of the University of Oklahoma midway through my freshman year back in ’73 to become a commercial diver. I enrolled in Oceaneering International’s diving school in Long Beach and headed west. After graduating in ’74, I moved to Morgan City, Louisiana to work on the offshore rigs in the gulf. My career as an industrial diver only lasted about six months though after it struck me I was doing the same construction work I’d gone to college to escape. The fact the job was underwater and paid pretty well wasn’t enough to offset the fact I was living in a swamp, diving in muddy water, and working alongside a bunch of roughnecks, each of which had lost at least one finger on the job. I went back to school and graduated with a degree in finance. I’ve made thousands of dives since then, but all of them for fun or adventure and mostly in crystal clear waters!

This is my graduating class photo at the Commercial Diving Center in Long Beach, California in 1974.
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