While aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste, he and Jacques Piccard made a record maximum descent in the Challenger Deep on January 23, 1960, to 35,813 feet (10,916 m).

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology to establish an underwater maintenance company, Soyuz Marine Service, which continues to operate in the Russian Federation.

[7] Walsh held a faculty appointment at Oregon State University in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

[8][9] It was reported in 2010 that Walsh visited the deep-sea submersible Jiaolong and its makers at the China Ship Scientific Research Center.

[13] In June 2020, Walsh's son Kelly dived to the bottom of the Challenger Deep with Vescovo, becoming the twelfth person to reach the deepest point in the ocean.

The book, about moving on from the defining moment in one's life, was inspired by Walsh's answer to Wright's question, "What came next after the Trieste dive?"

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Award of the Legion of Merit to Lieutenant Don Walsh, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services from January 1959 to January 1960 as Officer-in-Charge of the Bathyscaph Trieste.

Throughout this period, Lieutenant Walsh exercised marked professional skill and resourcefulness in carrying out an important assignment.