The "A Friend Loses His Life To COVID-19" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  On the bottom left of today's LNP News was a story telling about the death of a long time friend of mine by the name of  Smokey Roberts.  His given name was William, but I never knew him by anything other than "Smokey".  Smokey owned and operated Smokey's Divers Den with his wife, Dotty, in the 400 block of North Duke Street in 1959.  Started as a basement business and eventually moved in to a small shop next to their home.  For years I taught photography to seniors at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Part of the course was learning about occupations available in the field of photography.  I would invite professionals to my classroom to present 50 minute talks about the field of photography that they had chosen for their life's work.  I had professionals in portraiture photography,  journalistic photography, criminal photography, medical photography, agricultural photography, aerial photography and underwater photography.  

Smokey Roberts

Smokey made visits to my high school photography class from time to time to talk about careers in scuba diving as well as underwater photography and filmmaking.  One of Smokey's good friends was Stan Lipman who was a good friend of mine as well as a fellow teacher at MTHS.  I can still remember watching Stan and Smokey working with a few students in the high school natatorium.  Smokey was a scuba diving entrepreneur and filmmaker who had won many awards in cinematography documenting exotic sea creatures and eerie shipwrecks.  Smokey taught diving at limestone quarries in Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.  He was also a outstanding underwater photographer and filmmaker with assignments for National Geographic and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Smokey had some of the most sophisticated equipment and understood the field of underwater optics.  My students loved talking with Smokey when he would visit the school.  But, Smokey was more than just a photographer.  

Smokey with his accordion.

He, at one time in his young life, was a member and accordion player of the 101 Ranch Boys who were a popular Western swing band that toured the country as well as making recordings.  He joined the band at the age of 15.  He got his name of Smokey when a radio listener described his voice as "silky and smokey."  The 101 Ranch Boys recorded for Columbia Records.  The band toured the East Coast and had their own syndicated program on WSBA radio out of York, Pennsylvania.  Eventually his performing came to an end when he began a family. He then began working for Trojan Boat Company in Lancaster.  Then, in the mid-1950s he accompanied a group of co-workers to a Lebanon County quarry to do some scuba diving.  He was hooked!  He bought his own gear and...well the rest is history.  In 1972 he made a documentary with renowned Danish filmmaker Jean Berghmans about Truk Lagoon, the Pacific gravesite of about 50 Japanese warships and hundreds of aircraft.  The film won a gold medal at the Virgin Islands International Film Festival.  Four years later the two won the festival's bronze medal for a documentary on undersea research.  In 1973 Jacques Cousteau presented Smokey with the Boston Sea Rovers' diver of the year award.  The club honored him once again in 2004 at its 50th anniversary celebration.  Seems that Smokey had a story about everything which at times he shared with my class.  

Smokey and Dotty

Last year Smokey and Dotty moved to Cape Coral, Florida after Smokey suffered a fall at home.  This past October 29, Smokey died in Port Charlotte, Florida at the age of 94.  He died of COVID-19.  He was a great guy and I'm proud to say that I had the chance to know him during my lifetime.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.