Ralph Darr was a celebrated American pool and open water swimming coach. As a national-level coach for over 25 years working with the Californian teams of Phillips 66, Huntington Beach Aquatics and Irvine Novas and with coach Don Gambril, Darr played a significant part in developing Olympic medalists Gary Hall, Sr. , Shirley Babashoff, Steve Furniss, Valerie Lee, Mike O’Brien, Dan Jorgenson and John Mykkannen. Their efforts led to swimmers earning 16 world records, 8 Olympic medals, 9 World Championship medals, 3 Pan American Games medals and 31 U.S. Swimming national titles.