COUSTEAU, Philippe
France (1940-1979)
Last updated: January 25, 2020 at 16:31 pm
Environmentalist; explorer; film producer; lead cinematographer for multiple Cousteau Society films; pilot; dove for the first time in 1945 at the age of four using a miniature version of the Aqua-Lung; aquanaut during the Conshelf III underwater habitat mission in 1965; died when his Consolidated PBY Catalina, christened the Flying Calypso, broke apart on the Tagus River near Lisbon, Portugal, on June 28, 1979; son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Simone Melchior Cousteau; husband of Jan Sullivan Cousteau; father of Alexandra Cousteau and Philippe Cousteau Jr.
“Our goal was to serve as eyes for those who could not travel. We would be like knights errant who would travel the world, bringing their King tales of the Middle East. Except in our case, we would not be reporting to just one person but to millions.” — Philippe Cousteau
“Mon cher Philippe : I will always remember that day when you joined our Conshelf Two expedition. I was impatient to show you our Village under the Sea before it became too dark. Hastily, we submerged. I kept your hand in mine, to guide you. I felt strangely proud, not of what we had achieved, but because our dreams were always shared so intimately. Three years ago, I found myself sitting near you in the cockpit of your Catalina. I looked at you, my guide in the sky as I had been your guide in the sea. I saw your shining face, proud to have something to give back to me, and I smiled because I knew that pursuing rainbows in your plane, you would always seek after the vanishing shapes of a better world. I love you, JYC.” — Jacques-Yves Cousteau, six months after his son’s death.
International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame (2016)
NOGI Award (Art, 1977)
World Wildlife Award
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VESCOVO, Victor
WALLINGFORD, Peter
COUSTEAU, Jacques-Yves
LE PRIEUR, Yves Paul Gaston
EVANS, Bob
WOLBERT, Linden
VANN, Richard D., Ph.D.
NITSCH, Herbert
LABAN, André
CHURCH, Ron
NICKLIN, Chuck
EARLE, Sylvia, Ph.D.
SULLIVAN, Jeremiah
HASS, Lotte (née Baierl)
DOUBILET, David
McDONALD, Kendall
WATTS, Hal
WATSON, Neal
Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.