Inductees

It all began innocently enough. In the 1960s, right about the time he was transitioning to college, Don Peterson met the gentleman who owned John the Diver, a scuba diving store on Table Rock Lake.

Soon, a summer job was offered — $100 for the season, plus room and board.

“My parents never told me I couldn’t do it,” Peterson said.

Call it the start of his destiny, touching off a nearly 60-year career as one of the state’s most skilled scuba diving instructors. And it is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Peterson with the Class of 2022.

Certainly, he has one of the more unique backgrounds ever inducted into the Hall of Fame.

A graduate of Rogersville High School and Drury University and a Navy veteran, Peterson has been a scuba diver for 58 years, including 55 as a Springfield-based instructor. He has taught more than 15,000 divers and more than 50 instructors – primarily through AquaSports Scuba Center and then Diventures Swim & Scuba Centers.

“This award is for all the divers in Missouri,” Peterson said. “Scuba diving is often regarded as a recreational sport. And all the people who support us and come through our scuba diving school. This award is for them. Without them, I wouldn’t be here.”

Perhaps. However, his passion for scuba diving fused together students needing to know the sport’s proper safety and skills.

At age 11, he tried to snorkel in the James River using an eight-foot garden hose, although basketball became a focus for a time, as he lettered all four years in college.

Fortunately, scuba diving created a path to a career, which never seemed like a burdensome chore.

John Hoynacki, owner of John the Diver stores in Branson, Springfield and Joplin, helped him become a certified scuba diver in the mid-1960s. Soon, Peterson was diving in Table Rock, Catalina Island in California and the Bahamas. He later worked for John the Diver at Table Rock and assisted Hoynacki at the Springfield YMCA.

Among the accounts was Kanakuk Kamps, and Peterson went on to assist Kanakuk kids for 50 years.

Eventually, Peterson graduated with honors in 1971 from the National Association of Underwater Instructors training program in San Diego while stationed in the Navy. There, he taught diving at Coronado Island and the University of San Diego.

Peterson’s return to Table Rock Lake that year led to his hiring as Director of Education for John the Diver stores. He also taught diving at the Underwater Explorers Club in Freeport, Grand Bahamas and was the tour guide for numerous diving vacation trips to the Caribbean.

In 1978, he and two other friends – Roy Waddell and Bob French – each pooled $10,000 toward the opening of a new business in south Springfield, Aquasports Scuba Center. He was 32 when he secured a loan. Yes, it was a huge risk, but …

“I didn’t know any better,” Peterson said with a laugh.

AquaSports later added a swimming and commercial diving division in addition to scuba classes. In 1987, his wife, Vickie, and her mother started a travel agency next door.

In 1992 and 1996, the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASD) named it the Store of the Year. The hiring of instructor/salesman Mike VanHosen in 1986 boosted the store’s national profile.

Students earning college credits also turned to Peterson. They came from Missouri State, Central Missouri, College of the Ozarks, Drury, Evangel, Southwest Baptist, Central Bible College, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami and the Waste Water School in Neosho.

In 1989-1990, Peterson served on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools. He also was the chair for the Water Safety Committee for the local American Red Cross. In 1999, he became an instructor certifier for Scuba Schools International (SSL) and received its 2001 John Gaffney Award.

Peterson also was awarded the Platinum Pro 5000 Diver and Pro 500 Instructor awards for SSL. In 2011, Aquasports was sold to Diventures, a 10-store chain based in Omaha, Neb., and he remained on as an instructor trainer and scuba instructor.

“Without Vickie’s help and encouragement, I would have never been able to achieve this kind of success,” Peterson said of his wife.

Son Evan’s support – and mentoring by Gaffney and Doug McNeese – shaped his success, too.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Peterson said. “My enthusiasm for it today is as great or greater than it was back then. I have enjoyed every day I went to work.”