Anaheim Hills father, former water polo coach among Conception dive boat fire victims

The founder and CEO of a Placentia payroll company with ties to water polo programs around the country was among the dozens of victims who were aboard a scuba diving vessel that caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day.

The Santa Barbara coroner’s office has not yet identified Justin Dignam, who ran Big Fish Employer Services since 2003, as one of the 34 people who were trapped when a fire ripped through the bottom deck of the Conception on Monday.

But the company’s president, Jeff Hill, told clients in an email on Tuesday that Dignam, a father of two from Anaheim Hills, was on the diving vessel when it sank.

In the email, Hill said the company was “horrified” at the news.

“Our fearless Founder & CEO, Justin Dignam, was among those aboard the boat that caught fire off the coast of the Channel Islands yesterday,” he said. “With a broken heart, I will lead us vigilantly as we await confirmation from the authorities.”

He said executives at the company were “in shock, but are carrying on.”

According to Team USA Water Polo, Dignam was a veteran water polo player with decades of experience in the sport.

Dignam played water polo at the University of Richmond, then coached at Iona College and Wesleyan University. He also served as a referee. His company, Big Fish, partnered with USA Water Polo to provide payroll services, according to the organization’s website.

He worked for ADP for more than 17 years before striking out on his own, according to his company biography.

The biography noted Dignam still played in water polo clubs, and had picked up scuba diving.

The Conception was carrying 33 scuba diving enthusiasts and six crew members, bound for exploring ocean habitats off the coast of Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National Park, when the fire started early on Labor Day. After an extensive search and rescue operation, dive teams recovered the bodies of all 34 victims, Santa Barbara County officials said.

Dignam started Big Fish in one of the bedrooms in his Anaheim Hills home, according to a December 2018 profile of his company in the California Business Journal. He told the newspaper that he later moved the company to Orange after his wife “decided she wanted the fourth bedroom back.” The company now lists its headquarters as Placentia.

The company began a partnership with Team USA Water Polo, which practices in Irvine, back in 2010. In a statement to mark the occasion, Dignam described his ties to the sport.

“The relationship with USA Water Polo is a very special one for me,” he said at the time. “Water polo is, and always will be, in my blood.”

A woman who answered the door at Dignam’s Anaheim Hills home on Thursday said the family declined to comment.

A neighbor, Bill Radcliffe, called Dignam “a great guy” who cared about the community where he’d lived with his family for about 20 years.

Dignam cheered on his son and daughter  — a basketball player and a swimmer, respectively — at nearby Canyon High School, where he also helped out and donated to support the school’s athletic programs, Radcliffe said.

“He’d open his doors to anybody,” Radcliffe said. “He will be missed.”

Staff writers Alicia Robinson and Dan Albano contributed to this report.