St. Lucia Dive Guide

The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) Presented its 2001 NOGI Awards to Geri Murphy (Arts), Hillary Viders, Ph.D. (Distinguished Service), Bob Hollis (Science) and John Cronin (Sports and Education). The NOGI Award originated in 1960 and has been presented to a minimum of four outstanding individuals each year since its inception. It is the world's longest established honor society for divers. The statuette that stands as the award for excellence was created by Jay Alanese Jr. and Louis Cucia, founders of NOGI. Each year in September, the Academy solicits from its fellowship (112 members for 2001) nominations for the year's awards. Voting is done by the Academy's fellowship of past recipients. The new NOGI Award recipients are added to the Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame and are announced at the annual NOGI reunion banquet. GERI MURPHY (ARTS AWARD):One of the world's most published female underwater photojournalists, with an impressive record of more than 1,000 published articles, photos and books. Perhaps best identified with Skin Diver, as this magazine showcased more than 170 cover photos over 22 years. Murphy is now a regular contributor to Sport Diver, traveling the world in quest of great underwater photos and stories. Murphy is also a member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame. BOB HOLLIS (SCIENCE AWARD):Surfacing from his first scuba dive more than 40 years ago, Bob Hollis has climbed the ladder of success as first a retail dive store owner & instructor, to photo equipment designer, to founder and equipment designer for Oceanic and Aeris diving equipment manufacturing firms. Today, Hollis has taken his California born companies global with offices and manufacturing facilities in the U.K., Europe and China. His companies are best identified with high tech engineering products such as dive computers, high performance regulators and BCs. JOHN CRONIN (EDUCATION AWARD):Often described as The Father of Diving Education, John Cronin founded the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) in 1966. Over the next 35 years, he has taken PADI to the pinnacle of industry success as the world's leading dive training and certification agency. As part of the PADI development, he published Undersea Journal, a magazine for diving professionals; Project AWARE, a marine conservation foundation; and an association for PADI dive resorts. PADI operates in 175 countries worldwide and has more than 100,000 professional instructor and retail members. In 2002 PADI will certify more than 1-million sport divers. HILLARY VIDERS (DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD):As a speaker, educator, and author, Hillary Viders has brought awareness of our precious and fragile water planet to millions of people. Her lectures, videos, slide presentations and book Marine Conservation for the 21st Century have received outstanding reviews from scientists, educators and environmental professionals. She has published over 400 articles in 33 magazines and journals, plus academic papers, books, training materials, scripts and book chapters on diving marine science & conservation issues ranging from coral reef ecology to environmental law. Viders is also a founder of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, the world-renown honor society dedicated to raising awareness of the contributions of outstanding women divers.The four recipients were honored at the Third Annual Dive Industry Awards Gala in Las Vegas, Thursday, October 24, 2002, in conjunction with the annual DEMA trade show. Several hundred industry professionals were in attendance at the black tie event. The Historical Diving Society and the DEMA Reaching Out Awards were also presented at the Industry Awards Gala. For more information about the NOGI Award and past recipients, please click on http://www.auas-nogi.org.