A key figure in the pool/spa industry’s standards writing was lost last month.
Gene Wells passed away July 17 after a long battle with cancer. He was 79 years old. The founder and original owner of prominent Central California building firm Aquarius Pools, Wells served a significant stint as head of the committee that wrote the industry’s technical standards.
In 2016, the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals named Wells an APSP Fellow, the highest honor it gives for contributions to the industry, crediting him for developing the foundation for how the organization’s technical standards continue to be written today.
From the mid-1980s through the 1990s, Wells headed the Technical Committee for the National Spa and Pool Institute, the national organization that evolved into APSP, now, the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance. In that capacity, he oversaw the writing and revision of all the organization’s standards.
He manned the helm at a pivotal time, when it was rewriting ANSI/NSPI-5 the American National Standard for Residential Inground Swimming Pools after NSPI lost a lawsuit filed by a diving-accident victim who blamed the standard.
Those who worked with Wells cited an ability to build consensus as well as a dedication to science and the truth in helping the committee get the standard on track. He would hear everybody’s side, but he didn’t have much tolerance for the kinds of self-interest that sometimes can enter the standards-writing process. “That’s why everybody knew… you’d better have your ducks in a row and don’t come in with any kind of junk science or any pitch that’s trying to sell somebody,” said Carvin DiGiovanni of APSP. “He wouldn’t stand for that. And that’s why people respected him as an individual and a professional.”
Added fellow committee member and friend Dan Johnson: “Gene’s thought process was light years ahead of almost everyone in the industry… No matter what industry you’re in, [you want] someone like Gene Wells. He had honesty, he had integrity, he had character. He was uncompromising about doing the right thing and standing his ground when he knew he was right.”
Those who followed Wells in leadership roles, such as Johnson, currently head of the ANSI/APSP-5 Committee, credit Wells with helping them learn the ropes and providing a role model. Johnson credited Wells for helping him even after he stepped away from standards writing in the late 2000s.
The same holds true for current Technical Committee Chairman Steve Barnes. After Wells stepped down as Chairman, he remained on the Technical Committee for several years. He also was one of the professionals who encouraged Barnes to take his current role. Barnes also said Wells led the way on certain subjects such as building for lower line velocities to prevent drain entrapment.
“He was a big advocate of best practices that have empirical evidence,” Barnes said. “And he was very, very adamant that you don’t lose track of the big issues as you focus on the little stuff.”
Wells concerned himself with entrapment-proof design well before it became an industry-wide issue, spurred on by an incident that occurred in his area in the 1970s, said colleague and friend Phil Gelhaus. “Gene and his plumbing crew got into it and started investigating plumbing techniques,” said Gelhaus, chairman of the Foundation for Pool &Spa Industry Education and former owner of distributor General Pool and Spa Supply. “And splitting the suction was one of the ideas that they started doing. … By the mid-1990s, most pool builders were splitting drains and suctions in their spas, long before the Virginia Graeme Baker law.”
In addition to participating in any number of NSPI/APSP standards, Wells also was a member of the Builders Council and contributed to its Builders Manual. In his region, he helped write the Workmanship Standard for the California Contractor’s License Board.
Wells’ entrepreneurial experience extended as far as his standards writing. He founded Aquarius Pools in 1969. He also served as a principal in other companies, including Sacramento Concrete, Pool Diggers, Sculpture Stone and Klimate King. He sold Aquarius, which held a significant presence in the Sacramento, Calif. area, in 2000.
Eugene E. Wells was survived by a daughter, Aleta Wells, son Rex Wells, brothers Tom and Rex, as well as several grandchildren and great grandchildren.