Comments: Dear fellow divers,

Greetings and Salutations.  I hope this e-mail finds you all happy and healthy.  I just read Ron Farbaugh's e-mail and thought I should contribute.

Many of you may not know me.  I became a YMCA Scuba instructor in 1972.  In the winter 1975 I taught Scuba at the YMCA in Hollidaysburg.

Bob Maurer was one of my students.  He drove down to Hollidaysburg with other students for three months, as we had the classes once a week.  One hour in the classroom and one hour and a half in the pool.

Bob had started a course before this but the instructor had left before completing the course.  He was enthusastic and excited about scuba diving.  The Open Water dive was at Clover Creek Quarry. We had our graduation dinner at the Cottage Resturant in Ebensburg.

I left that fall for Laramie, Wyoming an a Master's Degree Program.  In December of 1977, I returned to teach Scuba at the Altoona YMCA.  I was living and working in Raliegh, North Carolina but my future wife, Sandy,  was not certified and there were no courses available.

Therefore, I taught the Scuba course with the help of my past students and friends.  Bob Maurer, Vernon Hirt, and others  were there.

Bob also brought his wife, Rose, so she could be certified.  I remember a pool session when Bob and Rose were discussing the clearing of the mask.  It became quite clear after that discussion.  Bob would work with Sandy and I would work with Rose of Scuba Diving skills.  Rose with with persistence and determination was certified.

I was priviledge to visit Bob and Rose for the last 26 years, on my trips from Pittsburgh to Glenn Hope to see in-laws.  Bob and Rose always treated me as an honored guest.  I shall remember Bob as a good old friend.   It takes a long time to make old friends.

Thank you for your time.  Dive well, dive often, dive safe.

Respectfully yours,

Marshall Ritchey