Don Walsh is head of the Oregon based consulting company, International Maritime Inc., a business he founded
in 1976. Joining the US Navy at Naval Air Station Oakland in 1948 he became an air crewman in torpedo
bombers before entering the Naval Academy in 1950. After graduation, he served two years in the Amphibious
Forces before entering submarine school in 1956. Then Don served in the San Diego based submarines Rasher
(SSR-269), Sea Fox (SS-402), and Bugara (SS-331) before commanding Bashaw (AGSS-241).
From 1959-1962 Lieutenant Walsh was the first Officer-in-Charge of the Bathyscaph Trieste at the Navy
Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. Designated USN Deep Submersible Pilot #1 he was also the first
submersible pilot in the US. In January 1960, he and Jacques Piccard dove Trieste to the deepest place in the
World Ocean: 35,840 feet. For this achievement, Lieutenant Walsh received a medal from President
Eisenhower at ceremonies in the White House. For 52 years no one had repeated this exploration. Then in
March 2012, James Cameron piloted his Deepsea Challenger to this same place.
In 1975 he retired as a captain to accept a professorship of ocean engineering at the University of Southern
California (USC). There he became founding Director of the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies (IMCS)
with rank of dean. He left USC after 8 years to form IMI, his present consulting practice. Since its founding,
IMI has completed nearly 100 projects in 20 countries.
For the past four decades, Dr. Walsh has also worked in both Arctic and Antarctic regions including the North
(5 trips) and South Poles. To date he has participated in over 50 polar expeditions.
Among other awards, in February, 2001 Dr. Walsh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in
recognition of his four decades of work in the design, construction and operation of undersea vehicles. In March
2001, he was awarded the Explorers Medal by the Explorers Club. A few years earlier he had received their
Lowell Thomas Medal. Also in 2001, the French Jules Verne Aventures organization awarded him its “Etoile
Polaire” medal celebrating “The Greatest Explorations of the 20th Century”. In 2001 he was also cited as one of
the great explorers in the Life Magazine book, “The Greatest Adventures of All Time”. Walsh was awarded The
National Geographic Society’s highest award, the Hubbard Medal in 2010.
Since graduation from the Naval Academy, his travels have taken him to about 112 nations throughout the
world. And he isn’t slowing down. In 1999, using a Russian Mir submersible, he dove 8,000 feet to the MidAtlantic Ridge near the Azores at the Rainbow Vents hydrothermal vents field. Later, in July 2001, he dove
12,500 feet to the wreck of RMS Titanic and the next year to the WWII German Battleship Bismarck at 15,500
feet. Most recently he has dived in Lake Geneva in a Mir submersible.