NAUI Bids Farewell to Diving Pioneer Spence Campbell

The NAUI family has bid a heartfelt farewell to Spence Campbell, one of the Pacific Northwest’s diving pioneers from the early days of diving.

Since the late 1950’s, Spence served the diving community in a variety of capacities including local diving instructor, commercial diver, commercial diving supervisor, scientific diver, diving physiology researcher, research diver, diving educator, past president of Washington’s Council of Skin-diving clubs. He was a NAUI dive instructor for 35 years.

Spence was a true diving pioneer.  He began diving in 1954 in Tacoma, Washington, without the benefit of formal training.  He attended Coastal School of Deep Sea Diving in Oakland, CA and worked on several projects, mostly dams, wearing a heavy MK V helmet and canvas suit.  He taught Scuba diving in the Air Force and after being discharged, he was recruited by the fledgling NAUI to join as an affiliate NAUI Instructor #A20.

Spence had a passion for diving physiology research and had set up a hyperbaric chamber in his garage in Bellevue, WA.  Soon after he was recruited by Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle to develop their hyperbaric research facility.  This facility became a popular field trip for NAUI Instructors from Canada to southern Oregon and east to Idaho.  Instructors would bring their advanced classes, leadership trainees, and dive clubs to the facility where Spence would lecture on diving physiology, the bends and the research that they were doing at the hospital.

Memories of Tom Hemphill

“I first met Spence in 1971 at the Seattle University NAUI Instructor Certification Course – ICC.  He was my team leader – green team.  There were 48 candidates in this nine-day “hell week” program.  We had a dozen on our team.  Spence took us under his fatherly wings and taught us how to teach diving.  Most of us thought we were already pretty good.  Spence changed our minds the first day and we all realized that we really had a lot to learn.

By mid-week the candidate count was down to about 36 candidates and not all of those passed the course. However, the Green Team had a lot of success, thanks to Spence.

In 1973, Spence recruited me to staff the NAUI ICC in Seattle.  At that time the NAUI North Pacific Branch alternated years with the instructors in British Columbia, Canada.  BC held one ICC on the even years and Washington/Oregon held one on the odd years.  During the staff discussions at the 1973 course, Spence introduced a new concept – Training, not just Testing new NAUI Instructors. This led to more discussions with NAUI Headquarters, and the ITC was born.

Spence’s vision led to developing a leadership training program and created the standards for Assistant Instructor and Divemaster courses. “

Memories of Rick Kaiser, NAUI # 4798

“I met Spence at my first ITC in 1975.  I did not pass.  Not because I was a bad diver. Actually, I was a pretty darn good diver (and think I still am). I just didn’t know how to TEACH diving.

After the course was over, I asked Spence if I could assist with his Bellevue Community College diving program to learn the skills of how to teach diving. I know of no diving instructor who has turned down free help, so he let me tag along. That was the start of many years working with him on many different projects and teaching SCUBA diving on a much deeper level than you’d experience in the typical dive store classes. He worked our butts off, and in return I learned from him and the other instructors the unique skills involved in how to teach people to become safe and confident divers.

Teaching for me is a skill that really started with Spence Campbell, but it has grown with me as I taught SCUBA classes in Bellevue, Oceanography classes at the University of Washington, Intertidal Marine Ecology classes at Whatcom Community College, computer programming classes at Sehome High School, and Super Cool Science School classes at Silver Beach Elementary School.  It is said that teaching for some people is a “calling”. And so it is with me. I really should have been a teacher instead of an engineer. But without the leadership and guidance of Spence Campbell, I never would have known about my love of teaching and how it can profoundly change the lives of so many people.”

 

There are countless stories and testimonials of Spence Campbell from many NAUI Instructors throughout the NAUI Family, world-wide.  Above all, Spence was a Super Mentor, and he was most excited when his protégés excelled.  He was a master storyteller as well.  Sea Stories were his specialty.

Spence was honored by NAUI when he was inducted into the NAUI Hall of Honor in 2015 and again with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.  He is a founding member of the Northwest Diving History Association. You can view some video interviews on the web site www.divinghistory.org