Courtesy Donald WalshDonald Walsh in front of the Russian Mir Submersible after diving to the World War II German battleship Bismarck.

Distinguised career

Over his long naval career, Walsh served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, commanded a submarine and worked as a policy advisor and assistant to the secretary of the Navy.

When he retired from the Navy in 1975, he accepted a position at the University of Southern California where he founded and directed the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies and was a professor of ocean engineering.

Walsh spent eight years in academia. The retired Navy captain continued to pursue his passions as a scuba diver, private pilot and explorer, participating in dozens ocean dives and expeditions to the polar regions.

Rebecca Hale/National Geographic Don Walsh is given the Hubbard Medal by National Geographic.

Still exploring

Exploration, he says, has been central to his life.

"Exploration is curiosity acted upon," Walsh says. "People can look at things and be curious about them, but if you are an explorer you want to know why and how and maybe develop an experiment to test the hypothesis." He says in his life, "It [has] always being able to look around the next corer and see what's going on."

Still vibrant at 78, Walsh lives on the Oregon coast and runs his own consulting business.