Bonnie Cardone

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Rest In Peace, Bonnie.
 
Wow... had no idea she passed. RIP.
 
RIP...remember reading her articles in SDM.
 
Very sad to read. She was an icon in the industry pushing topics and destinations to be written about growing sport diving immensely.

RIP......
 
Obituary forwarded to me to share...

It is with profound sadness that we share the news that our Sea Sister, Bonnie Cardone, passed away on January 14, 2020. She will be greatly missed by us all and words are hard to find to express how much. The following is a beautiful tribute to Bonnie that we received from her son Michael and daughter Pamela:

Bonnie J. Cardone February 21, 1942 – January 14, 2020

~ Michael Cardone and Pamela Cardone

”On the south side of the entrance to Bonaire’s Harbor Village Marina is a dive site not known for its topside beauty, but for the incredible abundance and variety of marine life that school just offshore. In the shallows, I stalked squid with my 15mm lens and spotted a giant Cubera Snapper with an entourage of baitfish. During a dusk dive, we revisited a place where two orange frogfish had been lounging. This time, though, there was only one, which sat motionless while I took its portrait. A steady, seemingly unending parade of Creole Wrasse streamed past us, a prowling Sharptail Eel hot on their tracks. Spotted Morays peeked out from rocky lairs to witness the brief commotion and then slipped away silently, oblivious to my flashing strobe.

This isn’t how I expected to spend my summer. I planned to sit at my computer day after day, writing mystery novels. Instead, I spent nine and a half weeks on Bonaire: diving, reading, housesitting, taking care of two dogs, four cats and a jungle of plants…and then, diving some more…”

So begins one of Bonnie Cardone’s numerous diving stories, this one titled, “9 1/2 Weeks on Bonaire,” which she published in an on-line dive journal.

It shows her attention to the details of the underwater world, which she began writing about after becoming a certified diver in 1973. Three years later, Bonnie began working for Skin Diver Magazine, and retired 22 years later as Executive Editor. Bonnie wrote more than 900 articles and published thousands of photos during her 22-years with Skin Diver Magazine, while at the same time she was writing articles about women diving pioneers for the Historical Diving Society’s magazine and authoring two books, Shipwrecks of Southern California (co-authored with Patrick Smith), and Fireside Diver, a compendium of diving writers she chose to make up into a fascinating collection of underwater stories including her adventure of being shipwrecked on a deserted island in the Philippines and extracted by the US Navy. She was principal photographer for Diving and Snorkeling in Southern California & the Channel Islands.

What a hard worker Bonnie was! Her writings have appeared in California Diving News, The Journal of Diving History, Canada’s Diver Magazine, Alert Diver, Sport Diver and several e-zines. In 1999, Bonnie received both the Women’s Scuba Association’s Women Diver of the Year Award and St. Brendan Corp’s California Scuba Service Award. She was one of the original inductees of the Women Divers Hall of Fame and is a member of the California Wreck Divers Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was awarded a NOGI for the Arts by the Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Fireside Diver and her work for Skin Diver Magazine is a tribute to how Bonnie gathered not only information, but the works of friends and divers. Her gentle nature was welcoming to all, and just as she put pages together of a monthly publication, she put divers together with divers, people together with people, and friends with friends. Her career required her to be selective and critical, but her attitude was soft and nonjudgmental.

Her sense of adventure went to the air when on her 50th birthday she did a tandem sky dive over Bakersfield.


Sometime after leaving Skin Diver Magazine, Bonnie moved from the Los Angeles area to Santa Maria and picked up on her big (hidden to most) love of writing murder mysteries. She is the author of the Cinnamon Greene Adventure Mysteries, which at the time of her passing included three books: The Bride Wore Black, Murder Dives the Bahamas, and Murder Dives the Caribbean. All of these books remain available on Kindle/Amazon.com, with followers who had written praises of her “short story caper(s)” and “fun, engaging repertory.”

Bonnie was a long-time member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and her short stories appeared in various anthologies including SinC/LA’s Last Exit to Murder. She also edited their newsletter and was the “cub” reporter (complete with hat and press pass) where her constant snapping of photos transformed up and coming authors into celebrities.

We bid farewell to our underwater Boswell, and see her writing in the clouds, while her work on earth remains in the ICloud.

Bonnie is survived by son Michael Cardone, daughter Pamela Cardone, sister Susan Rittschof, and brother Dan Ritschof.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests the following for donations in Bonnie’s name:

USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, online at https://dornsife.usc.edu/hyperbaric/donate/

The Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences: https://www.auas-nogi.org/ click on “Donate”
 
From Marty Snyderman. Please share.
As many of you probably already know Bonnie Cardone passed away recently. For those of you that did not know, I am sorry to be the bearer of such terrible news. Bonnie was a longtime member of the greater diving community, an original inductee of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, and longtime writer for and eventually Executive Editor of Skin Diver magazine. She was my editor, mentor and friend. A lot of writers and photographers that worked with Bonnie during her Skin Diver days would surely say something similar. Over the course of her career, Bonnie was presented with numerous honors including a NOGI for the Arts by the Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bonnie authored more than 900 articles during her career with Skin Diver, and after retiring from that career went on to more articles about diving and books including three mystery novels.

More than anything Bonnie was kind, quick to laugh, and she was a true friend to so many people.

My friend Eric Hanauer reached out to Bonnie’s brother, Dan Rittschof, and Dan asked Eric and me to post a notice about the upcoming celebration of Bonnie’s life. Please feel free to share this notice as you choose.

Here are the details:
Bonnie’s Memorial Celebration will be held at Cabrillo Beach Bath House on February 22. The celebration will begin at 2pm and may continue until 6pm. We will have some words from family and then the celebration will be to sharing photographs and stories of adventures and other memorable times. If possible a physical photo (8 by 10) would be great so they can be displayed. There will also be projection facilities. If you would like, bring your laptop or a stick.

The dress for the tribute is casual and appropriate to your memories. The themes are sea, tropical, diving, mystery, adventure and fun. We prefer pictures of Bonnie having fun with you. Silly is good.

The celebration will be up-stairs in the Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse, 3800 Stephen White Dr., San Pedro, CA 90731. Ample Parking for about $1/hr is in the beach parking lot adjacent to the venue.

Our plan is to provide food and non-alcoholic beverages. If you can RSVP to ritt@duke.edu, that would be helpful. If you can’t get that done, come anyway.
 

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