Ronald L. Coley | OUR WORLD-UNDERWATER SCHOLARSHIP SOCIETY™

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Region:

North America

Scholar Date:

1976 to 1977

As a member of the third class of OWUS scholarship recipients (1976), Ron Coley has led a successful career as an acclaimed underwater filmmaker, photographer, author, educator, and creator of interpretive natural history programs.

It was Ron’s hour-long special RIVER OF INNOCENCE that would cement the combination of original music, spectacular cinematography, and compelling narration as his trademark approach to telling complicated stories in an evocative lyrical style that caused reviews to read like a description of the work of a poet or novelist and not a documentary filmmaker.

Working with Dr. Joel Shiner and other acclaimed archeologists they uncovered evidence that Paleo people lived along the headwaters of this river more than thirteen thousand years ago indicating that the Spring Lake site may be the oldest continually inhabited site in North America.

Nestled in the Texas ‘Hill Country’ the crown jewel of Edwards Aquifer is Spring Lake. One of the most biologically diverse aquatic ecosystems in the United States, Spring Lake is Critical Habitat to seven endangered species. The first director of the Aquarena Center of Environmental Education at Texas State University, (now The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment), Coley oversaw and served as the liaison between the federal Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators, and archeological research teams as they began their coordinated efforts to protect, preserve, and discover the secrets of these “Sacred Springs."

This role offered Coley the opportunity to develop the largest aquatic restoration project in the United States, which still thrives a decade after he retired from Texas State University. While there is no recreational diving in Spring Lake, more than 5000 certified SCUBA divers have been through the Spring Lake Diving Authorization Course (D.A.C.) program which Coley developed in 1994. Upon completion of this specialized training, these citizen scientist divers are allowed to volunteer their time and training to protect and preserve Spring Lake's abundant natural, historical, and cultural resources, in one of the most unique habitat restoration projects in the country.

Coley partnered with the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to provide SCUBA certification to veterans with physical disabilities as an important part of their therapy. Later Ron developed OPERATION SCUBA that focused exclusively on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for returning veterans as they transitioned from the “combat zone to the classroom.”

Early in his career Ron was a top executive at SeaQuest, Suunto, Mares, Aqua Lung, and Tekna. Advertising, catalog design, and production seemed natural for his visual arts background, but it was the development of an educational system that included film, textbooks, and teaching guides for the birth of computer-assisted multi-level diving that bore his unique approach to telling a complex story. His work in the development of computer-assisted multi-level diving while he was both the Director of Advertising at SeaQuest, and the Product Manager of Suunto-North America was important, but it has taken a back seat to his work on the spring-fed lake at the headwaters of the San Marcos River.