The NOGI Awards are presented annually by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences to diving luminaries.[1] Selection of recipients is based on their record of accomplishments and excellence in the diving world. NOGI awards are given out to world-class standouts of the diving community who have distinguished themselves and made a global impact on diving in one or more of four general categories: Science, Arts, Sports/Education, and Environment. A fifth NOGI is given for Distinguished Service.[2]
History/Importance
Dating back to the 1950s when the award was given out to the underwater division of the "New Orleans Grand Isle Fishing Tournament," the NOGI, which is an acronym for the first four words in the name of that tournament) is now the "oldest and most prestigious award in diving."[3]
NOGI Categories
There are five categories of NOGIs.[4]
SCIENCE: Recipients in the Science category include renowned underwater archaeologists such as E. Lee Spence and George Bass, inventors like Edwin Link, undersea explorers like Sylvia Earle and Robert Ballard, doctors involved in hyperbaric medicine such as Joseph MacInnis, as well as marine biologists, and other marine scientists.
ARTS: Awardees in the Arts category have included internationally known filmmakers such as James Cameron and Stan Waterman, marine artists like Guy Harvey, and photographers such as National Geographic's Emory Kristof.
SPORTS/EDUCATION: The Sports & Education category recognizes distinguished diver athletes like Ron Taylor, educators like John Christopher Fine and even actors like Lloyd Bridges and Zale Parry who were pioneer scuba divers and portrayed divers on TV's Sea Hunt, and thus helped to encourage and grow the public's interest in diving.
ENVIRONMENT: The newest category of NOGI is for Environment and its first recipient is Dr. G. Carleton Ray. It is meant to recognize divers who, well beyond their normal employment, have led efforts to protect the world's underwater heritage.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE: Distinguished Service recipients have typically included world-renowned divers like Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Astronaut/Aquanaut Scott Carpenter but they have also included lesser known people whose professional, volunteer and/or private work has truly had a major impact on the diving industry and/or the global diving community in general.
The Statuette
The original NOGI statuettes were designed by New Orleans sculptor Vero Puccio, who hand carved them out of mahogany (one report says balsa) and later cast them out of polywood. Since 2005, when the statuette, which shows a pedestal mounted skin diver standing with upraised arms holding a plaque reading "NOGI," was updated by marine wildlife artist Wyland (who is also a NOGI winner), the statuettes have been made of cast lucite.[5][6]
NOGI Recipients
The following is a listing of all NOGI recipients since its creation in 1960.
| Award Year
|
Science
|
Arts
|
Sports/Education
|
Distinguished Service
|
Environment
(Category added 2013)
|
| 2012–2013 |
E. Lee Spence, M.H.D. |
Michael Aw |
Bret Gilliam |
Dave Parker |
G. Carleton Ray PhD
|
| 2011 |
Phillip Lobel, PhD |
Nick Caloyianis |
Ed Stetson |
Mike deGruy |
x
|
| 2010 |
Patrick Colin, PhD |
Bernie Campoli |
William Hamner / Peggy Hamner |
Frank K. Butler Jr., M.D. |
x
|
| 2009 |
Michael Lang |
Michele Hall |
Paul Humann |
Hillary Hauser |
x
|
| 2008 |
Hannes Keller |
Bonnie Cardone |
Walt "Butch" Hendrick |
Mike Gower |
x
|
| 2007 |
Charles Birkeland, PhD |
Wes Skiles |
Carl Roessler |
Dee Scarr |
x
|
| 2006 |
Paul S. Auerbach, M.D. |
Bill Curtsinger |
Bill Meistrell / Bob Meistrell |
William "Bill" High |
x
|
| 2005 |
Paul Dayton, PhD |
Peter Benchley |
Bob Evans |
Lee Selisky |
x
|
| 2004 |
Richard Pyle, PhD |
Guy C. Harvey, PhD |
Armand Zigahn |
Henri G. Delauze |
x
|
| 2003 |
Jim Cahill |
Chris Newbert / Birgitte Wilms |
Leslie Leaney |
Alese Pechter & Mort Pechter |
x
|
| 2002 |
Anatoly M. Sagalevitch, PhD |
John Stoneman |
Edward C. Cargile |
Émile Gagnan |
x
|
| 2001 |
Bob Hollis |
Geri Murphy |
John Cronin |
Hillary Viders, PhD |
x
|
| 2000 |
John E. Randall, PhD |
Ada Rebikoff |
Tom Mount |
Frederic Dumas |
x
|
| 1999 |
Richard W. Grigg, PhD |
James Cameron |
Andreas B. Rechnitzer, PhD |
Albert Falco |
x
|
| 1998 |
Hans Hass, PhD |
Wyland |
Richard Murphy, PhD |
Hans Hass, PhD |
x
|
| 1997 |
Phil Nuytten, PhD |
Lt. Col. John D. Craig |
Robert Clark |
Capt. Phillippe Tailliez |
x
|
| 1996 |
Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD |
Ricou Browning |
Dan Orr |
Surgeon Vice Admiral John Rawlins |
x
|
| 1995 |
R.W. Bill Hamilton, PhD |
Bob Talbet |
Bev Morgan |
Scott Carpenter |
x
|
| 1994 |
Alfred Bove, M.D., PhD |
Flip Nicklin |
Lee H. Somers, PhD |
Mary Edith "Mel" Lillis |
x
|
| 1993 |
Jean-Michel Cousteau |
Howard W. Hall |
John Christopher Fine |
Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, PhD |
x
|
| 1992 |
Christopher Nicholson |
Ralph White |
Frank Fennell |
Ellis E.R. Cross |
x
|
| 1991 |
William "Bill" High |
Jordan Klein, Sr. |
Richard W. Long |
E.B. "Teddy" Tucker, M.B.E. |
x
|
| 1990 |
Robert I. Wicklund |
Bev Morgan |
Dennis K. Graver |
Ian G. Koblick |
x
|
| 1989 |
Don Walsh, PhD |
Ivan Tors |
Jon Gaffney |
Andreas B. Rechnitzer, PhD |
x
|
| 1988 |
Richard A. Slater, PhD |
Jack McKenny |
Jon Hardy |
Andre Galerne |
x
|
| 1987 |
Eugenie Clark, PhD |
Emory Kristof |
Bert Kilbride |
Richard M. Sammon |
x
|
| 1986 |
James W. Miller PhD |
Charles Nicklin |
x |
John H. Perry, Jr. |
x
|
| 1985 |
George Ruggieri |
Cathy Church / Jim Church |
Walt Hendrick, Sr. |
John Cronin |
x
|
| 1984 |
Gene Shinn |
Nancy Sefton |
J. Morgan Wells, PhD |
Ralph Osterhout |
x
|
| 1983 |
Capt. Otto Van Der Aue, M.D. |
Mendel L. Peterson |
Helen Turcotte Davis |
Elliott Finkle, PhD |
x
|
| 1982 |
Richard A Cooper, PhD |
Genaro Hurtado |
Lloyd Bridges |
Dick Bonin |
x
|
| 1981 |
Glen H. Egstrom, PhD |
Rick Freshee |
Jefferson Davis, M.D. / John Geiszler |
Nixon Griffis |
x
|
| 1980 |
Peter B. Bennett, PhD |
Valerie Taylor |
Louis M. Fead |
Harry Shanks |
x
|
| 1979 |
Roger W. Cook |
Lee Tepley, PhD |
Jim Brown |
Charles Shilling, M.D. |
x
|
| 1978 |
Conrad Limbaugh |
David N. Doubilet |
Mel Fisher |
George Benjamin, PhD |
x
|
| 1977 |
Robert Dill, PhD |
Phillippe Pierre Cousteau |
Dewey Bergman |
Jack McKenny |
x
|
| 1976 |
Sylvia A. Earle, PhD |
Bates Littlehales |
Arthur H. Ulrich |
Robert F. Marx |
x
|
| 1975 |
Robert D. Ballard, PhD |
Ernest H. Brooks, II |
Ellis E.R. Cross / Charles Nicklin |
Melvin Grosvenor, PhD |
x
|
| 1974 |
George Bass, PhD |
Lamar Boren |
Wheeler North, PhD |
Nick Icorn |
x
|
| 1973 |
Arthur J. Bachrach, PhD |
Ron Church |
Bernard "Bernie" Empleton |
Zale Parry |
x
|
| 1972 |
Joseph MacInnis, M.D. |
Al Giddings |
Harold Drake |
Frank Scalli |
x
|
| 1971 |
Christian J. Lambertsen, M.D. |
Peter Gimbel |
Harold Drake |
Walter Feinberg |
x
|
| 1970 |
Harold Edgerton, PhD |
Richard Anderson |
T.F. "Duke" Pawlowicz |
Oscar Asturias |
x
|
| 1969 |
Albert Behnke, M.D. |
Paul Tzimoulis |
James R. Stewart |
Glen H. Egstrom, PhD |
x
|
| 1968 |
Andreas B. Rechnitzer, PhD |
Stanton A. Waterman |
Terry Lintz |
David R. Stith |
x
|
| 1967 |
Hon. Jacques Piccard, PhD |
Bill Barada |
Ralph Davis |
Louis R. Cuccia |
x
|
| 1966 |
Robert Workman, M.D. |
Dimitri Rebikoff |
Ron Taylor |
Capt. Jacques-Yves Cousteau |
x
|
| 1965 |
Edwin Link |
Eugenie Clark, M.D. |
John Ernst |
Pablo Bush Romero |
x
|
| 1964 |
Capt. George Bond |
Coles Phinizy |
William "Bill" High |
Albert Tillman |
x
|
| 1963 |
Edward Lanphier, M.D. |
Luis Marden |
Mary Edith "Mel" Lillis |
Joseph D. Albanese, Jr. |
x
|
| 1962 |
David M. Owen |
James Dugan |
Gustav Dalla Valle |
John J. McAniff |
x
|
| 1961 |
Jim Christiansen / Jack Faver |
x |
x |
C.B. "Ben" Davis |
x
|
| 1960 |
Eugene J.D. Vezzani, PhD |
Jim Auxier / Chuck Blakeslee |
George Youmans |
Carl H. Hauber |
x
|
| Award Year
|
Science
|
Arts
|
Sports/Education
|
Distinguished Service
|
Environment
(Category added 2013)
|
References
