dean miller - 5-1-2010 at 04:50 AM
NAUI 50 Anniversary celebration
March 2010
About a month and a half ago I received a special richly engraved invitation as a VIP to attend the NAUI 50th Anniversary celebration to be held at
the new NAUI Head Quarters building in Jacksonville, Florida. It was not just a invite but a invitation to an all expense paid trip to the event.
I was certainly free and available but do to several circumstances I like to travel with a companion; My dear wife was the first choice, but since she
has her doctorate in school finance and budgeting and in view of the current California school crisis was booked up with conferences and seminars,
second choice was my son who is a NAUI Life member and a Hyperbaric doctor was a logical second choice, but he also was booked solid.
With total dismay I telephoned NAUI and expressed my regrets that I would not be attending. At 8:05 the next morning Jim Bram the president of NAUI
called and immediately stated "I will not take no for an answer, I want you to attend, I am sending Mike Dusnst the former SoCal district manager to
accompany you." "But he has moved to Texas" I replied. "That correct! He will fly into California and accompany you on your trip, so get your
bags packed!" he commanded. I did and Mike accompanied me.
The trip was interesting worthily of at least several paragraphs, but I will only list the itinerary; Santa Maria, LA, Washington DC to Jacksonville-
met by a Limo to NAUI HQs. The return trip was certainly more mundane; First class to LA on to Santa Maria. The intimate details of the trip will
need to be deferred a the dark of the night over a cool one.
I walked into lobby of the hotel right in to the middle of the "Vintage California section." Setting around a table were octogenarian instructors ;
Harry Vetter, NAUI #4, Nick Icorn NAUI # 431,Glen Egstom, NAUI # 937, Home Fletcher NAUI #1833 and two past NAUI directors Art Ulrich, NAUI #601and
Sam Jackson NAUI #2972. Greetings were exchanged and space was made for me to join the venerable circle of NAUI instructors. The twice told
stories were told and retold each time the embellishments made them better that the previous telling,
At 3:00 PM the General meeting began. As one who can recall the humble genesis of NAUI I was surprised at the number of instructors from all over the
world in attendance-- and how young so many appeared.
Immediately after the general meeting there was a champagne c-cktail reception on the patio. A time for pictures and renewing of old friendships and
cementing of new friendships. I was joined by Dave Woodward, NAUI # 29 who hadn't seen in 35 years who now resides in snowy Colorado.
On to a Jim Bram personally conducted tour of the new and very exciting NAUI headquarters building. What a building! Modern with all the latest
electric technologies with the light blue color and the NAUI "Wave" a a general theme though out all ares. So very very impressive!
Their was only one word for the banquet-- Fantastic! The quality, quality and variety of food was equal to a Las Vegas buffet. we heaped out plates
and settled in. Once again the California Mafia had their own table; Glen Egstrom, Nic Icorn, Tommy Tillman ( son of LA Co & NAUI founder, the
late Al Tillman,) Zale Parry and your truly.
The informal program began with a trivia question which I immediately blurted out the answer and won a prise. I seem to have a talent for diving
trivia and especially winning trivia contest
Harry Vetter, former long term diving buddy and veteran LA Co Underwater Instructor and as the oldest living NAUI instructor # 4 singled me out for
special recognition as NAUI Instructor # 27 as one of the the oldest living NAUI instructors and the oldest NAUI instructor in California, where it
all began. The recognition spot light was some what embarrassing but also concurrently ego satisfying.
(Harry and I and others were bouncing around Baja in the very early 1950s. We made roads were there were no roads, camped on beaches that had never
been camped on before and diving the never dove coves and reefs all over the northern half of Baja--- See Skin Diver Magazine Vol 1 Nr 1 December
1951)
It was a night and an event that the participants didn't want to end but to every thing there is a beginning, a middle and an end. As the oldest
California NAUI instructor my life and my diving has been enriched as one who has experienced the beginning, the middle, but the end is many years in
the future and I suspect that I nor the readers of this post will never see the end of NAUI.
dean miller - 5-1-2010 at 05:18 AM
OOPs I have been vacationing -- was unaware that I had previouly posted this..
sdm