Into the FKCC Dive Lagoon
By Josie Koler | May 23, 2009 | Features |
Arriving four years ago in Key West from Greenville, South Carolina, Patrick Vandenabeele says it’d be safe to say he was lost.
“Some students and Florida Keys Community College alumni twisted my arm to get back in school.” Vandenabeele reminisced.
He had dropped out in South Carolina, but at their urging, registered anyway. Electing to take a SCUBA diving class.
“I took my first breath underwater, and that was it,” Patrick tells The Key West Weekly, “the experience gave me direction.”
Friday, the board of trustees and college officials dedicated the James E. Lockwood, Jr. School of Diving and Underwater Technology. College President Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle recalled when she first caught wind of the donation.
“When I was told there was an email saying, ‘I want to give $500,000 to the program…’ I said, ‘is it from Nigeria?’”
Dr. Landesberg Boyle has been facing the cutbacks at FKCC synonymous with the economical crisis. The college is currently receiving exactly half of the money per student from two years ago.
“But we still had a vision,” says Dr Landesberg-Boyle, “to create a center in excellence in Marine Science Technologies and Engineering.”
A vision realized by dive legend, James E. Lockwood, Jr., a SCUBA pioneer who built some of the world’s first rebreathers in the 1930’s. A Wisconsin boy, he opted out of milk and pastures in favor of nitrous reef whose achievements also include the underwater props for the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the underwater camera housing used in the first Tarzan movies.
“Lockwood was ahead of Cousteau,” noted Lockwood Foundation esquire and Marathon resident John Campbell. “He is an inventor, businessman, entrepreneur, and archaeologist pioneer.”
Campbell told the crowd he believed Lockwood would have loved the lagoon, known as “The Point,” and the educational offerings the college has for our community.
William Chalfant, Director of the James E. Lockwood School of Diving, is ecstatic over the $1 million gift. He has been scribbling his wish list over cocktails for the dive school on cocktail napkins saying, “What if…What if…”
“As funding came in through drug money and seizure money, we would draw up a few more plans and hallucinate about what was going to happen,” Chalfant said.
With the dollars now in place Chalfant and his instructors will fulfill their vision for five areas. (See below)
- Coming soon to the FKCC!
- Expanded recreational diving
- Expanded commercial diving
- Additional classes geared toward research
- Upgrade to the hyper-baric chamber
- More public safety courses for police, Customs Enforcement Agents, and Homeland Security Agents
“It’s all being made possible, Chalfant drove home, “by the Lockwood grant. By having money in place we are now able to leverage this.”
Dr. Patrick Rice, Director of the Marine Science Department, is just as enthusiastic. He will suit up with students and soon begin mapping the reefs of the Florida Keys.
“I want to put it in Google Earth, so researchers, scientists, and students around the globe can take a virtual dive to see the coral,” conveyed Dr. Rice.
Such passion and dedication to the program from instructors like Rice and Chalfant, Patrick pointed out, is what really kept him afloat through his courses of study. He feels the money will help attract other students such as himself … possibly unaware of the underwater world.
“There’s a certain feeling about putting on a facemask and going into another world … a world where we are guests. It never ceases to amaze me.”
Patrick Vandenabeele earned his Associates in Science in
Diving Business & Technology from FKCC. From Greenville, SC,
Vandenabeele says his future plans incude teaching at FKCC.
Currently he suits up as dive master and instructor at Eco SCUBA. 
William Chalfant told
The Key West Weekly the million big ones will allow
them to branch out in other means of research where the money just
wasn’t available before. “If we want digital cameras, we can go and
get them.” 
Living landlocked as a boy, Dr. Patrick Rice is the
director of the FKCC Marine Science Department. His students will
graduate and immediately submerse themselves in the workforce.
“They’ll going to be able to do some really cool stuff!” 
The leading lady at FKCC Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle says
the college is working with contractors now to build dorms on “The
Point”, where the School of Diving and Underwater Technology is
situated. Her promise is to make Mr. Lockwood proud. 
Members of Diveheart were in the lagoon during parts of
the dedication. Diveheart is an organization which enables disabled
veterans an avenue to enter the water and explore. Their President,
Jim Elliot says the program gives men and women a new found sense of
self. Based in Chicago, they make several trips a year to dive the
Florida Keys and don’t mind leaving Lake Michigan behind. 
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Reader Discussion
Impressive story, it’s unbelievable how quickly the dive program took off.
Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle knows how to get the job done!
This college would not have been here anymore if not for Dr. Boyles hard work and dedication to the STUDENTS. Our dive program has more than doubled in enrollment.
Great news for the FKCC dive program on the IUTS program and FKCC sharing in $2.24 mil. Jill Landesberg-Boyle knew about the great strength FKCC has in it’s dive program. She was a strong advocate for the dive program and this big win was one of the key items she worked toward.
In the article it mentions posting the mapping on google maps. Were they able to do that?
You can see more about the IUTS program and where the FKCC dive program will participate on Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle‘s Blog.
Now, with the $2.24 Million appropriation, the work on reef mapping will rise to a new level. Some of the funds will supply the equipment needed to conduct this research, such as underwater sonar technology and ground penetrating radar. Those items will double their use as instructional equipment for a variety of other scientific projects, one of which will be a course Dr. Rice will develop in coral reef mapping .
Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle