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On June 11, 2018
Doc (James) Radawski passed while at his home on Roatan, the Bay Islands of Honduras.
I always thought that if he had the same publicity machine, he would have been as well known as JYC. Instead, Doc first appeared on most of our radar screens in 1972 when he showed up in the far East end of Roatan in the still-today remote town of Port Royal. Now we have Doc's Dive and his friends including Newman, Calvin, Albert and Mary... all dive sites.
He relates some stories of that time during his network TV appearance on the "Crystal Skull" series, where he dealt with modern day pirates, brigands and Indiana Jones types.
A great piece by Dennis Foster: Doc of the Bay <LINK
Doc's beginnings and history trace variously through his college days in Northern Michigan, Maine, Colorado (where else would a diver likely live?) and lately in his second adoptive home of New Orleans and environs, but always coming back to Roatan.
A true feeling for the time: What I Like about Roatan <LINK
His entre' and existence was keeping compressors running, through the years of the 70's and today, still no minor feat on Roatan! In these last ten years, those of us who were smart enough to take a moment to gather 'round, he would hold sway with a weekly Island History lecturette at CoCo View, then a weekly Naturalist Talk as well.
It was his island, it was his life endeavor. He sat at the table when that 60fpm silliness came to life. He watched over Mary's Place when it was closed, he lived on the island just North of the site.
Like many old divers, he had long ago lost accounting of that "number of dives" thing, but it was easily estimated to be in the 10,000 range. I will most remember his quiet and accepting demeanor, yet also the welling in his eyes when confronted with the undeniable degradation of our Ocean reef systems. I shared his distress.
About 1990 or so, I returned from a night dive after spotting a critter that the world would have to wait until 2005 for the National Geographic Society to "also discover". I excitedly described this massive worm to Doc as he sat at the CCV bar, he listened silently and finally said,
"It's a big Ocean out there"
We enjoyed the dive, Doc.
Doc (James) Radawski passed while at his home on Roatan, the Bay Islands of Honduras.
I always thought that if he had the same publicity machine, he would have been as well known as JYC. Instead, Doc first appeared on most of our radar screens in 1972 when he showed up in the far East end of Roatan in the still-today remote town of Port Royal. Now we have Doc's Dive and his friends including Newman, Calvin, Albert and Mary... all dive sites.
He relates some stories of that time during his network TV appearance on the "Crystal Skull" series, where he dealt with modern day pirates, brigands and Indiana Jones types.
A great piece by Dennis Foster: Doc of the Bay <LINK
Doc's beginnings and history trace variously through his college days in Northern Michigan, Maine, Colorado (where else would a diver likely live?) and lately in his second adoptive home of New Orleans and environs, but always coming back to Roatan.
A true feeling for the time: What I Like about Roatan <LINK
His entre' and existence was keeping compressors running, through the years of the 70's and today, still no minor feat on Roatan! In these last ten years, those of us who were smart enough to take a moment to gather 'round, he would hold sway with a weekly Island History lecturette at CoCo View, then a weekly Naturalist Talk as well.
It was his island, it was his life endeavor. He sat at the table when that 60fpm silliness came to life. He watched over Mary's Place when it was closed, he lived on the island just North of the site.
Like many old divers, he had long ago lost accounting of that "number of dives" thing, but it was easily estimated to be in the 10,000 range. I will most remember his quiet and accepting demeanor, yet also the welling in his eyes when confronted with the undeniable degradation of our Ocean reef systems. I shared his distress.
About 1990 or so, I returned from a night dive after spotting a critter that the world would have to wait until 2005 for the National Geographic Society to "also discover". I excitedly described this massive worm to Doc as he sat at the CCV bar, he listened silently and finally said,
"It's a big Ocean out there"
We enjoyed the dive, Doc.
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