Biography of Dick Rutkowski

   In 1950 Mr. Rutkowski joined the U.S. Navy and served during the Korean War. After his discharge from the Navy in 1958, he joined the U.S. Weather Bureau (Polar Operations Program) and was assigned to duty in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic.

   In 1964 Mr. Rutkowski transferred to the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA). Under the direction of Dr. Harris B. Stewart he completed the Divers Training Academy a (commercial diver training course) and was subsequently charged with training ESSA scientists, shipboard personnel, and other government and state agency diving personnel. In 1970 ESSA was reorganized into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) placing diver training within the newly formed NOAA Dive Office located in Rockville, Maryland.

   Under the direction of Dr. Morgan Wells, Mr. Rutkowski served as the Deputy Diving Coordinator for NOAA. After the U.S. Navy closed their recompression chamber in Key West, Florida, Mr. Rutkowski obtained a surplus Navy (78 inch diameter) chamber that was installed at the NOAA facility located at Virginia Key FL. Mr. Rutkowski, Director of Diver Training/Hyperbaric Treatment Center (DTHTC) along with Deputy Mark Kaiser, and volunteers from the Florida Underwater Council, worked tirelessly to establish the only recompression chamber in the South Florida area. This chamber served South Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, South America and the Bahamas. During the 1970s very few (if any) chambers were available for treating diving accidents.

   In 1975, (at Virginia Key) Dr. Morgan Wells, Director of NOAA Diving and Mr. Rutkowski Director (DTHTC), introduced the first NOAA/UHMS physicians medical diver training program, which continues to be taught.

   The Virginia Key chamber and the physicians' medical diver training program were relocated in 1988 to the NOAA Diving Center in Seattle, Washington where the operation continues.

   In addition to their NOAA duties, Mr. Rutkowski and Dr. Morgan Wells also conducted several training programs for other federal agencies. At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, Wells and Rutkowski conducted diver training for the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) and aided in establishing their dive program and Dive Safety Board. In the 1980s, Rutkowski also conducted hyperbaric training for operators and medical personnel and recommended Nitrox Gas usage to the NASA program. At Kennedy Space Center, Mr. Rutkowski introduced and continues to teach the Diver Training Program and the Hyperbaric Treatment Program to operators, divers, DMT's, and booster recovery divers. Since 1981, Mr. Rutkowski has conducted diver training and has helped to establish the diving safety board for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as establishing the Nitrox Diving Program for this agency for over 20 years.

   After retiring from NOAA, Mr. Rutkowski has continued to use this vast expertise to conduct training programs for agencies such as NOAA, USN, USAF, NASA, EPA, U.S. Customs, the Panama Canal Commission, hospitals, commercial diving companies, foreign navies and hospitals.

   In the late 1980's three large ships were sunk in Key Largo, Florida to form an artificial reef in area for use by recreational divers. Realizing that compressed air was not the ideal breathing gas for the depths in which the vessels were sunk (approximately 130 feet/40 meters), Mr. Rutkowski through his training facility, Hyperbarics International, introduced the recreational diving community to the use of Oxygen Enriched Air (EAN), called Nitrox, as a substitute breathable gas for these depths. In 1991, he co-founded the International Association of Nitrox Divers (IAND), now called (IANTD) (Trimix) and has since co-founded four other Nitrox certification agencies.

   He was the past president and vice president of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Gulf Coast Chapter and the co-founder of International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers, the American Nitrox Divers Association, the International Board of Undersea Medicine, Undersea Breathing Systems, Undersea Research Foundation, the Alliance for Marine Ecology and Conservation (Costa Rica), and the Association of Marine Ecology and Conservation (Florida). He has also organized and founded diving safety organizations such as the Florida Underwater Council and the Society of Diving Safety (SUDS) located in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

   Mr. Rutkowski's background also included acting as a consultant for NOAA saturation systems including Flare, Hydrolab, Aquarius, Helgoland and La Chalupa. He is also a recognized NOAA Aquanaut.

    Mr. Rutkowski has written extensively and lectured on all forms of diving, diving life support systems, gases, undersea and hyperbaric medicine. He has authored or edited the following: Instructor/Student Guide for the Use of Nitrogen-Oxygen Mixtures as a Divers Breathing Gas (the first training manual for recreational nitrox), The Complete Guide to Nitrox Diving Introduction to Nitrox Diving Instructor/Student Guide for Operational Use of Breathing Gases During Hyperbaric Exposures (a recompression chamber life support manual), Mixing/Blending for Nitrox and Trimix, and the diving accident management manual mentioned above. In addition he was a contributor and editor to the NOAA Diving Manual and more than 60 other publications and training films.

   Mr. Rutkowski has donated, built and installed a complete hyperbaric facility consisting of the building, chamber, compressor, volume tanks and complete medical equipment valued at over $400,000 for the residents and tourist divers of Northern Costa Rica.

   For his long, dedicated service Mr. Rutkowski has received many awards and honors. His many honors include: the Rutkowski Glacier in Antarctica, named for him in 1967 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names; the 1976 NOAA Public Service Award; a nomination for the 1976 Dade County (Florida) Outstanding Citizen Award; and a nomination for honorary Ph.D. from Florida International University. In 1995 he was elected to the Explorers Club as a Fellow. Organizations such as the US Army, the US Navy, the Florida Underwater Council, Divers Alert Network, the National Association of Underwater Instructors, NAUI and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI 536) have bestowed various honors and awards upon Mr. Rutkowski during his career.

   To date, over 6,700 physicians, military personnel, commercial divers, DMTs, CHTs, nurses and others have attended Mr. Rutkowski's hyperbaric medical training seminars. Classes have been conducted at his facility, Hyperbarics International, Inc. located in Key Largo, Florida, as well as at other locations within the United States and internationally.

Hyperbarics International, Inc.
522-A Caribbean Drive
Key Largo, Florida, 33037
USA

Phone (305) 451 2551
Fax (305) 451 5765

dick@hyperbaricsinternational.com