Her father, Robert V. Olson, was the son a of Swedish immigrant, who volunteered at 17 to join the U.S. Navy at the outbreak of WW II.
During that time, she led investigations of over a dozen shipwrecks, and testified in the Lady Elgin case, The People of the State of Illinois ex rel.
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency et al., Appellees, v. Harry Zych, d/b/a American Diving & Salvage Company, et al., Appellants,[3] regarding her observations conducting an investigation of three sites of Lady Elgin wreckage strewn on the lake bottom.
[6] In 2006, Valerie was inducted into Women Divers Hall of Fame[7] for her years of preserving and interpreting Great Lakes shipwrecks.
[9][10] At its annual event in Bowling Green, Ohio, International Legends of Diving added Van Heest to its Honor role in 2010[11] In 2017, van Heest received the Joyce S. Hayward Award for Historic Interpretation from the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History.
The recent MSRA discovery of the S.S. Michigan inspired her to find a way to share this story with her daughters by writing a young reader's book.
The Adventures of Young George Sheldon and the SS Michigan, van Heest continued in a new direction by writing non-fiction books about Great Lakes shipwrecks and other historical topics.
The organization conducts side-scan sonar expeditions in search of shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks in Lake Michigan.
[22] These programs were also presented at various annual underwater film festivals all around the Great Lakes including: Our World Underwater Chicago, Illinois[23] Ford Seahorses' Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival Ann Arbor, Michigan[24] Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation's Ghost Ships Festival Milwaukee, Wisconsin[25] Bay Area Diver's Shipwreck and Scuba, Sandusky, Ohio[26] The Niagara Divers' Association Annual Shipwrecks Symposium, "Shipwrecks + current year " Welland, Ontario[27][28] Lake Superior Marine Museum Association's Gales of November, Duluth, Minnesota Valerie van Heest appeared in the following programs:[29] September 2014 Valerie van Heest has also appeared or been interviewed on numerous newscasts and TV programs such as ABC news, Al Jazeera, CBS news, Fox news, NBC news, & MLive about her knowledge of shipwrecks and plane wrecks.