Richard Stovall - Midland Texas - Rest In Peace

[emtee63]

Richard trained many many people in West Texas over the last 40 years as a PADI instructor. He helped lots of people discover the joys of diving and will be greatly missed. Lots of heavy hearts in the Texas dive community today. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

LAKE O.H. IVIE - The search for a missing diver at Lake O.H. Ivie has ended in tragedy.
The body of 77-year-old Richard Stovall was found just before 11 a.m. Friday morning from Lake O.H. Ivie.
Divers entered the water around 10:30 a.m. Friday morning and they found Stovall's body in the 3rd chamber of the pump station around 11 a.m. Just after 1 p.m., officials recovered the body.
Back on Wednesday afternoon, Stovall was working on getting soil samples around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
After an hour, workers that were with the man called 911 when Stovall didn't resurface.
Deputies, EMS, a dive team comprised of San Angelo PD and Coke County Deputies as well as Texas Parks and Wildlife all responded. A special dive team from Houston was also called in to help with the search.
There have been some questions regarding the pumps at Lake O.H. Ivie. According to officials, the pumps that Stovall was working to get soil samples from were turned off before Stovall entered the water.
Stovall's body will be sent to Lubbock for an autopsy. - Newswest 9

 

[DandyDon]

I searched SB when this story broke and found his Intro here. Quite impressive...

My name is Richard Stovall(dive name is BULLFROG. That was my handle when CB Radios were so popular. Started diving in 1954 with a Rebreather that I built for $65.00. Self taught diver until 1959 when I became involved with the YMCA program. They made me a better, more comfortable diver. Became a YMCA Gold Instructor in 1960 and in a few short years became a NAUI instructor as well as a PADI Instructor about 37 years ago. In 1960 I opened Stovalls Dive Shop(Web is Stovall's SCUBA and Travel.com) I have been instructing and retailing diving for some 48 years and am the first SCUBA Center in West Texas. I have seen over 35 stores start and bottom up within a 110 mile radius of Midland, Texas over the past 35 years. In 1985 I dropped all my instructor ratings but PADI. I can explain why if asked. My belief is that SCUBA Training regardless of the certifying Agency is no better than the Instructor. I have a passion for teaching others to enjoy my underwater world as a safe, knowlegable diver. I also believe that it is very important to treat all of my customers as a friend and can tell you that I have thousands friends because of my training program. I am a very fortunate individual.
God has allowed me to experience so many different things and I probably hold the world record of "having been there and done that" I am a veteran(11th Airborne)
I hold a commercial, multi engine pilots license, I have certification as a trainer in so many different things. None were given to me, but were earned thru hard work and determination. I am a very family oriented person, I have been married to "My gift from God" for 54 years. My wife and I have two grown children, three grand sons, one grand daughter,and one 3 year old great grand son. Three of the grand children are Master SCUBA Divers. The fourth and oldest is a scuba diver, fireman and a paramedic. All my grand children were certified as Jr. Open Water Scuba Divers at the age of 12. I am a Christian and proud of it and I teach my classes and treat my friends and customers as the way the Bible tells me I should. I do my best to live and practice what I believe. I am a happy, very happy person. I love fishing and hunting and actually love to work and consider it a privilege.

Life is so great and God certainly did some fancy and real art work in His underwater world. I am a conservitive, love to discuss religion and politics and respect your beliefs and opinions and expect you to do the same for me. I was young once, but that has been slipping away from me Occasionally look at my web site and hopefully I can be of help. Maybe my years of experience will allow me to answer any questions that you may be looking for an answer for.

 

[koozemani]

I can only hope my life reads like that someday.

 

[dgreenh]

Richard was a great man and a gifted instructor. He helped me with anything I needed getting started in the scuba business without hesitation. He was not only my instructor, he was my mentor and a true friend. I asked him once how many people he had certified and he said he lost count 30 years ago. He had an impressive amount of knowledge that he would freely share with anyone. He will be missed by a lot of people.

 

[dpwheeler]

The "Bullfrog" was a good friend and a Christian brother. He and his bride, Wynn were there when Sally and I got married 31 years ago. We taught together when we lived in Midland. Our PADI Instructor numbers are 3 numbers apart even though over 2,000 miles separated us when we joined PADI. We had a good visit at the PADI Forum a few weeks ago in Dallas. I will miss my friend and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. I take comfort in knowing I'll hook up with my friend Richard on some reef, some where, some day, and there will be no worries about being too deep for too long. Until then R.I.P., Bullfrog. Dave Wheeler