Bryan, that helps a little because I'm trying to nail down some dates. Years ago, I wrote in rec.scuba:
"The history of sport agencies as I understand it, developed something like
this. In the 1950s, after the development of the aqualung in the late 40s and as the world regrouped from WW II... an interest in sport diving began to grow. At one time, a diver just needed to purchase an Aqualung which I guess included an instructional booklet. Most formal instruction was not organized and because of the attitude about the "macho" aspect of diving much emphasis was placed upon physical prowess and most instructors were ex-military divers, commercial divers, lifeguards, and accomplished freedivers and spearfishers. There were also few female partcipants at first.
The first organized scuba courses in the United States began in 1954 and
were conducted by Al Tillman for Los Angeles County. L.A. County developed the first underwater instructor's certification course called U.I.C.C. but it
existed only in Los Angeles County.
Since there was a need for a national certification program, the Council
for National Cooperation in Aquatics (CNCA) developed a course foundation for the YMCA to train divers. Much of the emphasis was on physical fitness.
While the YMCA program was being implemented, Al Tillman was creating
another national program which became NAUI. Tillman & an instructor named Neil Hess recruited instructors through "Skin Diver" magazine. Instructors sent in outlines of courses for review & if approved, they then were made members of the National Diving Patrol. In 1960, the NDP created its first national instructor course and the name was changed to the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI).
In 1962, John Gaffney started the National Association of Skin Diving
Schools (NASDS) based on the idea that professional dive facilities offering
instruction, sales and service would help the sport to grow and this way would
offer more quality control. He created an instructor training facility to
create quality instructors called the Professional Diving Instructors College
which later seperated and became the Professional Diving Instructors
Corporation (PDIC) in 1975.
In the late 1960s, thanks to television and films, more people wanted to
learn to dive. Prior to this, the swimming skills and freediving skills of most
new divers was such that open water training was not thought to be required and most instruction was done in the class & pool. Open water dives, if done at all, were usually just teams of divers going into the water practicing their
skills and coming out to receive their C-cards. In 1967 the Professional
Association of Diving Instructors was formed with the emphasis on making diving more available to the public and train them in a less military manner.
Bob Clark & Ed Brawley devised precise instructional techniques while at
the Professional Diving Instructors College & NASDS became the first agency to require open water training.
Because of the Vietnam War, many divers and instructors found themselves
stationed overseas in the military. Nick Icorn, who was the training director
for PADI, took this opportunity to start expanding internationally and the
first PADI instructor training course was given at Clark Air Force Base in the
Phillipines in 1970 by PADI Master Instructors Roy Goodman and Hap Chapman.
Equipment innovations up to this point were the single hose regulator
(1959) and the development of the BC by NASDS dealers. Scuba-Pro made the first BC with a power inflator (forget the year). NASDS was the first agency to introduce the equipment console and the "octopus" regulator.
In other countries training developed based upon the "dive club" structure
such as BSAC (UK), CMAS (France) & FAUI (Australia).
If I find anymore info I will gladly pass it along. I'm sure others will
be able to make a much larger contribution and maybe even correct some of my info, but I hope this helps at least with some names that contributed to the development of the sport in the United States as instructors."
To which Al Tillman, himself, replied:
"I would say that Tracy David Malinowski did a pretty darn good job
recounting the history of the organizations. I would like to add that
Bev Morgan deserves equal credit for the LA County program and John C.
Jones played a major role in NAUI by the time the first ICC was held.
These are by far not the only names associated with the creation of
these two agencies, but these are ones that can't be left out.
Also, The YMCA actually held the first "National" instructor training
course in 1959 - not quite a year before NAUI's first ICC in Houston,
TX. NAUI holds the distinction of holding the first "International"
course with candidates from other countries in 1960.
It should also be recognized when mentioning names that PADI's founders
were Ralph Erickson (who went through the first NAUI ICC) and John
Cronin. These men have made their mark and should be recognized.
Hope this helps in your research,
Al Tillman"
Al is no longer with us otherwise I probably just would have asked him. If anyone can build around this info that would be great!
