FRAZIER, Dottie May

FRAZIER, Dottie May

USA (1922- )

Last updated: January 25, 2020 at 3:27 am

First female scuba instructor; first female commercial (hard-hat) diver; first female dive shop owner (Penguin); wetsuit and drysuit designer and manufacturer; charter member of the Long Beach Neptunes dive club in 1950; began teaching freediving in the 1940s then scuba diving in the 50s; her father concocted her first diving mask using a fire hose, an inner tube, glass, tape and glue; aircraft riveter during WWII; Full name: Dorothy Adell Reider Gath Frazier May; author of Trailblazer: The Extraordinary Life of Diving Pioneer, Dottie Frazier, in 2019.

“I could see everything under water as clear as if I were on the surface. From this time forward, this became my world. New discoveries presented themselves daily amid this constantly changing underwater wonderland.” — Dottie May Frazier, upon gazing underwater for the first time using a mask made by her father (Trailblazer: The Extraordinary Life of Diving Pioneer, Dottie Frazier).

Diving Pioneer Award (Historical Diving Society, 2019)
Women Divers Hall of Fame (2000)

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