David Walter grew up in Mobile, AL, joined the Marine Corp in 1966, served in Viet Nam, and honorably discharged. He worked at the Terminal Railway in Mobile for two years before attending Faulkner College in Bay Minette, AL to become an engineer. He started a part-time boat repair business that grew too large to accommodate college. This business grew into a shipyard in Fairhope, AL. In 1987, he sold the shipyard, moved to Orange Beach, becoming the first commercial reef builder on the Gulf Coast. To date, he has deployed over 45,000 artificial reefs. He holds several patents for artificial reefs and wave attenuators. Walter Marine/Reefmaker manufactures and deploys artificial fishing reefs, snorkeling reefs, and wave attenuators worldwide.