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NWSC History
The National
Water Safety Congress was organized on June 28, 1951 in
Nashville, Tennessee in response to growing concerns over
water deaths in the region of the
Cumberland and Tennessee River Valleys. Blessed with large
lakes and a bounty of recreational opportunities, the area saw many summer
weekends where more people were drowned than were killed on the highways.
Alarmed citizens
and safety leaders realized that there was no
available organized avenue to address their concerns. Then, after eight
members of one family drowned in the Calfkiller River, the Nashville
Tennessean ran an editorial
on May 22, 1951
forcefully demanding an action program to combat the loss of
life in Tennessee as a result of drowning. That same
day, a staff writer from the paper and a Pulitzer Prize
winner, Mr. Nat Caldwell, visited Colonel Henry Walsh,
District Engineer of the US Army Corps of Engineers’
Nashville District. They discussed the need for an
organized attack on the water safety problem.
Colonel Walsh
called upon the US Coast Guard, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the American
National Red Cross, and the Governor of Tennessee to help him set up an area
wide meeting to promote water safety in the states of Tennessee and
Kentucky. On the 19th of June 1951, representatives of those agencies,
Colonel Walsh and members of his staff formed a temporary
committee called the Water Safety Council of the Tennessee and Cumberland
River Valleys. The committee announced that the first area-wide meeting for
all persons interested in promoting water safety would be held at the
Hermitage Hotel in Nashville on June 28, 1951.
This
announcement led to the Nashville Tennessean and the Nashville Banner, two
daily newspapers, providing one of the most effective media support
campaigns ever given to a safety movement. Radio and television stations
joined in. This excellent media support spread to other sections of the
south.
On June 28,
one hundred safety experts, public officials, and civic leaders assembled in
the main dining room of the Hermitage Hotel with Colonel Walsh presiding.
After talks by the Governor of Tennessee, Gordon Browning, Arnold
Winkenhofer of the American National Red Cross in Atlanta, and Commander
Clay Clifton from the Coast Guard, the Temporary Executive Committee
proposed that a permanent organization be formed to continue the emphasis on
water safety. The assembly appointed a board of directors and committees
and elected the first President of the Cumberland and Tennessee River
Valleys Water Safety Congress – Everett Derryberry, President of the
Polytechnic Institute.
As
participants and interest extended far beyond the Cumberland
and Tennessee River Valleys, the
organization changed its name in 1951 to the Water Safety Congress. By
1955 individual memberships represented 24 of the 48 States. In 1958 the
name was again changed to The National Water Safety Congress.
Membership
ranges from high public officials to private boaters. Primary effort is
through the interests of businesses, state, public, and federal agencies.
The purpose of the Congress is to promote the safe use of our water
resources by every means available.
The National
Water Safety Congress is not affiliated with any one Federal or State agency
or private industry. It generates no programs of its own. It aids, abets,
and supports programs of agencies dedicated to the prevention of accidents
in the recreational use of our water resources. Specializing in no
particular field of water use activity, the NWSC extends its efforts to all forms
of water use. Membership dues are its only financing venue.
National
Water Safety Congress membership probably represents the greatest total
aggregate of water safety knowledge in the nation. Its members dedicate
themselves to the prevention of accidents in the recreational use of our
water resources. They serve without pay, promote no product, and
endorse no
organization or agency. They condemn only that which is unsafe.
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