Keith Lamb History

Tuesday November 25, 2008

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I thought I'd tell my story.

Carol,  I looked at your web site.  Nice.  You have almost exactly 10x the number of dives I have despite being certified only 2 years earlier.  Course, I'm a vacation diver and you are the in the industry.  I'm sure there have been many challenges and I know your career was probably a lot harder than it sounds.  That's because it sounds like a fantasy job.

 I thought I'd tell my story.  My father learned diving while working on the H-bomb at Bikini and Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Island Group, circa 1953.  No classes - just grabbed the gear and went in.  We believe he was the first to ever see Bikini using scuba.  I can only imagine how pristine it must have been. 

    When my father's friend opened a scuba store in my home town of Mansfield, my father asked my brother Alan and I if we wanted to go to his class - to help him get started.  I jumped at it.  The rest is history.  I have been to 44 countries since then on dive trips, 3 with my father.

And just in case you cared the slightest bit, my father was a very accomplished radiation scientist/engineer from MIT.  After the war where he worked on Radar, then the H bomb, he returned to civilian life and invented/developed the microwave oven.  My grandfather and his partner, Richard (Dick) Tappan, opened a plant in Mansfield to manufacturer the strange device, which didn't catch on.  My father worked on perfecting it for over 20 years until it caught on.  

-         Keith Lamb

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Note to Keith from Carol:   I knew Ernie Washington - but not until after he had moved to the Keys.   I am assuming that the dive store was Dive Inc.   Somewhere Pete Wolfinger got involved before he went with ScubaPro but I do not have the details.   I never met him, but I did (still do) know Ed Christini who still has a position with SSI.  Do you know when Ed took it over?   Ed sold it to Jim Brown.  Jim moved the store to Columbus sometime about 1978 (I think), then sold to Rob Harris who re-named it “It’s Dive Time”.   If you can fill in some of this it would be interesting.   CK

  Keith:   No, the store was Fun Center Divers.  I knew the folks at Dive Inc. also.  I knew Pete Wolfinger very well (but not the others you mentioned) and did quite a bit of diving with him.  About a year ago I visited him at his factory – he now makes scuba parts and test equipment.  A visit/tour is not to be missed. 

Class Photo circa 1970

Here's our class picture, circa 1970. From the extreme right are my brother Alan, then my father, then myself. Our instructor is standing, with mask and snorkel. His name was Ken Meyer and his partner was Ernie Washington (not pictured).

Dad does a bail out

...I am standing just behind and to his right.

Myself, after the checkout.

I was frozen solid as a rock.

Note the old mae-west style vest.

 

This was my check out dive - Lake Maria, Feb.

Freezing cold, in parts, we had to move/cut ice out of the way. Ernie Washington is in the middle, I think I am the student to his left but I'm not sure.

 

Another Check Out Dive Photo

Ernie again...I think the middle diver is Ken Meyer, the other instructor. The student to the left is Kevin Crawford, a boyhood friend of mine who

went through the training with us. Note the old style vests.

 

The Worlds First Microwave Test Oven

Here's a picture of the world's first commercial microwave during its first field test. I am on the left, my brother on the right. We used to defeat the door interlock and point it at the end of the countertop where we left a plate of eggs. They exploded like little hand grenades. Drove my mom nuts!

- Keith Lamb

 

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