- Robert C. Whaley, PhD
- Naval Sea Systems Command
Dr. Bob Whaley is the Director of Diving Programs for U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). He grew up in a rural area of Northeast Ohio east of Cleveland. He started diving in college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he received his B.S. in Engineering in 1975. While working as an engineer for the Navy’s David Taylor Research and Development Center, Bob began teaching scuba diving at a local dive shop in Alexandria, Virginia in 1976 and was able to attend the Navy diving school at the Washington Navy Yard in 1977. Bob went from there to NAVSEA in 1981 where he was an engineer and operations specialist for the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). He went back to the Navy diving school, now in Panama City, FL, for surface supplied diving and salvage officer training in 1982. Bob received his M.S. in Engineering from the Catholic University of America (CUA) in 1991. Bob spent the next 10 years working deep-sea search and recovery operations including a couple of aircraft salvage operations in over 14,000 feet of water. Bob became the director of the diving programs division (also part of SUPSALV) in 1993. He completed his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, also from CUA, in 1998. Currently he is the technical director for the Navy’s new flyaway saturation diving system, which will be capable of working in depths up to 1000 feet of water.
Bob and his wife Connie (also a diver) have two daughters, Elizabeth and Charlotte (not yet divers, but it’s only a matter of time). They currently live in Reston, Virginia.
