With scuba diving explorations of sunken treasure galleys and safaris in the cradle of civilization under his metaphorical belt, Dave Horner is no stranger to adventure. From his early days in the Navy, the Lynchburg, Virginia, native has made a career at sea. A member of the Explorers Club, he founded one of the first pro dive shops in the mid-Atlantic region and pioneered sport diving for treasure. Both the Bahamas and the government of Ecuador have recognized Horner for his part in the salvage of three Spanish galleons lost in the 1600s. Since the 1970s, he has been involved in seafaring activities and describes himself as an ocean diver and maritime historian. With this expertise, he has written numerous books about sunken ships and treasure hunting.
Unsolved mysteries and other interesting subjects have always been a passion for Horner, and he studies them with the dogged determination of a classic gumshoe. One of his most compelling nautical undertakings, an expedition into the disappearance of America’s aerial sweetheart, Amelia Earhart, led him to the precipice of revelation and moved him to write The Earhart Enigma: Retracing Amelia’s Last Flight. His conclusion contradicts numerous experts’ conclusions about the fate of Earhart. Like a hound following a scent, Horner’s thirteen years of archival research unearthed new evidence to support his groundbreaking claim.
His ambitious nature also translated into a successful business career. At the age of thirty, he became the youngest bank president in Virginia. Later, he was made bank president of a major Orlando, Florida, bank, and was named Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Florida. Following this accolade, Horner founded Florida Food Industries and became the chairman of Horner Properties, Inc., his real estate investment business. In addition, he has been a scuba instructor for Maritime Explorations in Virginia and has been featured on What’s My Line, Today, To Tell the Truth, and various other local TV and radio shows.
Horner graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in economics and from Rutgers University with a graduate degree in banking. When not exploring exotic islands and reefs around the world in his custom schooner, Horner and his wife, Jayne, call the East Coast home and alternate living in Vero Beach, Florida, and the Maryland Eastern Shore. |