The Ocean Lost A Legend Today

My dear friend, colleague and beloved mentor, Bill Lovin, passed away quietly in his sleep last night. The ravages of Parkinson’s finally sent him on his last dive.

 

To say that Bill was one of the most generous, kind and talented people I know would be an understatement. He took me under his prodigious wing decades ago and we have been fast friends ever since. He was always quick to share advice, equipment and work with a young underwater filmmaker following in the steps of a man who was the first to document on film the amazing shipwrecks lying off the North Carolina coast. He introduced me to the big boys in the dive world and taught me that all food was great but Mexican food was the best. Every Thanksgiving for 25 years he and Jovita joined Cindy and I and our family for a raucous dinner and celebration.

 

In the dive community he is legend. And my heart is broken.

 

In his last years Bill and Jovita worked tirelessly to move his amazing underwater film library online. Oceanarchives.com (https://oceanarchives.com/) was their gift to students and educators and is intended to be a free resource for all lovers of our water planet going forward. Through his work, his legacy and his name, his spirit will live with all of us who were touched by this amazing man and friend.

 

Fair winds and following seas Bill . . . I will carry you and Jovita with me always.