Friday, May 15, 2009

James E. Lockwood built his own scuba rebreathers in 1938, long before the devices became mass-produced items. He also developed underwater camera housings used in Tarzan movies of the 1930s and developed underwater props for the film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

Now, six years after his death, Florida Keys Community College will hold a dedication ceremony today to mark a $1 million gift a foundation in Lockwood's name gave to the college's School of Diving.

The gift will help the collage expand its diving curriculum to integrate marine science and diving to work-force education such as underwater welding, hyperbaric medicine, port security, aquaculture, and coral reef mapping and restoration, college officials said.

"This gift is going to allow us to pursue a wealth of exciting new initiatives to modernize our program," Marine Sciences Director Patrick Rice said. "We're going to purchase new, high-tech equipment, modernize our existing gear, and develop new curricula. We'll also be able to extend our support to our Middle and Upper Keys centers with the purchase of mobile training equipment."

The college's diving school includes modern classrooms with computers, showers and lockers, adjacent pool facilities, a hyperbaric facility, a temperature- and humidity-controlled dive locker, a compressed-air production facility with two high-pressure and two low-pressure compressors, a nitrogen/oxygen blending station, and a scuba repair and testing facility.

The 4 p.m. dedication ceremony at the college's diving lagoon will include remarks from college officials and local, state and national dignitaries, including Gov. Charlie Crist. There will be presentations on the history and the future of the college's dive program, as well as diving demonstrations by students in the lagoon, also referred to as the underwater classroom.

Representatives from two organizations that also were funded by Lockwood's estate will be in attendance: DiveHeart and Shake-A-Leg Miami. Both organizations help children, adults and veterans with physical, developmental and economic challenges through diving. The college plans to partner with both groups to set up new programs to certify and train individuals with disabilities.

Members of the Florida Keys Educational Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the college, will pay tribute to the life of Lockwood and "the legacy he has left to the field of diving and underwater film," college officials said.

The college's school of diving will be renamed the "James E. Lockwood Jr. School of Diving and Underwater Technology" in recognition of the financial gift.

Lockwood died in 2003 in Florida at age 92.