Harry Shanks

:: Harry Shanks - Distinguished Service - 1980

As one of diving's elder statesman, Harry Shanks has devoted more than 44 years to the development of the sport in the United States. His far-reaching vision helped to establish some of the most prominent organizations in diving today and his single-minded determination has made NOGI an international recognized institution.

Harry R. Shanks was born in Chicago, IL attending school in the metro area. He received a BA degree in college and during WW II, he joined the Navy Air Corps ('43-'47) as a pilot. After college and military service, Shanks joined Chicago based Sears Roebuck and Company where he enjoyed a 39 year career. His career in Sears included almost every facet of the company and ended as a Senior Marketing Person.

Shanks began his diving in the 50's in Acapulco, Mexico, while on vacation. In the 60's, he took a 12-week scuba course as a "moss back" and was certified as a YMCA diver. Over the next 10 years, he made almost 1000

dives. He became very active in the Chicago metro area diving community. He served as dive club president for four years and then president of YMCA Metropolitan Council of Scuba Clubs for four years. On the state level, Shanks served for three years as Director of the Illinois Council of Scuba Clubs and nationally 3 years on the Board of Governors of the Underwater Society of America

As an enthusiastic dive traveler, Shanks toured much of the dive regions of the US and made numerous trips to the Bahamas, Cozumel, Roatan, Bonaire, Curacao, Jamaica, Spain and Italy, all during the late 60's and early 70's. He became an early pioneer in dive tourism development, forming his own company, Scuba Consultants Ltd. At one point he owned 50% of a Florida Keys resort.

In 1970, Shanks helped organize Chicago's most prominent Dive Show underwater film festival - Our World Underwater. Staged at the Medinah Temple, the evening show featured the late Phillipe Cousteau. Shanks went on to establish the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, which is dedicated to assisting bright young college students who expressed a desire to develop a career in the undersea world. Both organizations have gone on to flourish and become major diving events.

In the 1980s, Shanks played a key role in a major diving industry crisis, in which California was proposing legislation for all Divers and Diving Instructors to be licensed. The issue had been prompted by the unfortunate deaths of three divers. The legislation had passed in Los Angeles and was heading for state approval pending an investigation. Shanks was sent for to seek a solution. He set up the California Scuba Advisory Committee and put together a Blue Book of documentation on quality of dive training agencies through CNCA and Bernie Emplteton, the committee Chairman (a NOGI Fellow). As a result of Shanks efforts and his mediations with within the diving industry, the legislation was ultimately overturned.

Of Shanks's many accomplishments during his lengthy diving career, one of most significant is his leadership in the continued success of the NOGI Award, diving's oldest (1960) and best recognized award. In 1967, Shanks took over the NOGI Award Program when its founder and owner, Jay Albanese, passed away. Shanks negotiated with Albaneses heirs to retain the rights to the NOGI and he continued the program. In 1970, Shanks commissioned Skin Diver Magazine to become the NOGI Awards main sponsor, and the magazine funded the annual production of the four statuettes every year thereafter, until it stopped publishing, in 2002.

In 1993, Shanks and early NOGI recipients formed the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) to assure the NOGI Awards program would continue with the same quality of its first 33 years. The organization was incorporated and subsequently received a not-for-profit, tax-exempt status. It currently maintains its own web site (auas-nogi.org), and it produces an annual black-tie dinner gala for recognizing the latest NOGI recipients.

In 2005 the AUAS board of directors created the Harry Shanks Award for Leadership in Diving to recognize Shanks's lifelong contribution to the diving industry.