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Dan Orr

Dan Orr has been a certified diver for nearly 45 years and a dive professional for nearly 40 years. During that time, he has been involved in many facets of recreational, scientific and military diving. During his career, he has worked and taught recreational diving in a retail store, developed and implemented course curricula in the academic environment, collected data and supervised research efforts in the field of science diving, tested diving equipment for military contractors and worked for or served on the Boards of various not-for-profit organizations.

Dan is currently the President and CEO of Divers Alert Network (DAN). During his nearly 17 year tenure at DAN, he has helped DAN focus on its mission to help divers in need worldwide while promoting successful business and administrative practices. As a result, DAN has grown to be one of the most successful organizations in our industry while living up to the expectations of our members and supporters.

When he originally came to DAN, he developed and implemented the DAN Oxygen Program. This program, along with other developed by DAN, has become the worldwide standard in training divers to provide emergency oxygen to injured divers. Prior to that, he worked at both Florida State (Associate Diving Safety Officer) and Wright State University (Director of Diver Education) helping to make diver education and safety programs at both universities some of the most comprehensive educational experiences available. Dan has been involved in diver education for over 36 years as an instructor with many of the training associations including NAUI, PADI, YMCA, ACUC and CMAS. He has also assumed positions of responsibility with a number of the training associations including NAUI (Mid-America Branch Manager and Founding Director of the Technical Advisory Group) and the YMCA Scuba Program (Scuba Commissioner for the Great Lakes Region).

Dan has published and co-authored over 100 articles and a dozen books and manuals including: Scuba Diving Safety (2007), Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries; Pocket Guide for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries; DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries Training Manual; the NOAA Diving Manual, and numerous articles in national and international magazines and journals. He has also been an invited lecturer a meetings of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS); the International Conference on Underwater Education (ICUE); the International Congress on Drowning (Amsterdam); as well as the Boston Sea Rovers, Beneath the Sea, Our World Underwater, SeaSpace and many others.

During his diving career, he has made a commitment to serve, through volunteerism, with many of the non-profit organizations in our industry. Dan has been elected to leadership positions in International DAN (Chairman of the Board 2005- present); Accident and General Insurance, Ltd. (Chairman of the Board 2003-present); Diving Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA – Secretary of the Board & Chairman of the Membership Committee 2005-present); Historical Diving Society (as President and Chairman of the Board 2003-present); the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (as Chairman of the Board 1999-2001); the Institute of Diving and Museum of Man-in-the-Sea (as Chairman of the Board 1988-1990); the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society (as Director and Chairman of the Scholar Selection Committee 1993-2004) and National Association for Cave Diving (Board Member and Safety Officer 1988-1991).

During his career, Dan has been honored by his peers by being the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors including the Wright State University Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence, the Wright State University Education Department Award for Teaching Excellence, the NOGI Award in Sports/Education, the Leonard Greenstone Award for Outstanding Contributions to Diving Safety, the Our World-Underwater Award, the NAUI Award for Outstanding Contributions to Diving, the Alberta Underwater Council’s Award of Merit and Beneath the Sea’s Diver of the Year.

Dan served his country in the US Navy Reserves (1966-1976) serving aboard a variety of vessels including, the USS Steinaker (DD863) during a tour in Viet Nam (1968). Following active duty, as a Navy Reservist, he taught scuba diving for the US Naval Reserves and participated in active duty for training as a Navy Diver (NEC 0000/5345).