:: Walt "Butch" Hendrick - Sports and Education - 2008

Walt "Butch" Hendrick began teaching diving and rescue in 1960 in Puerto Rico, where he and his family performed many of the off-shore rescue, started an offshore water rescue team, and installed and ran the first and only civilian Hyperbaric Facility in the Carribean at the time. Walt's work in Puerto Rico was interrupted for a few years when he served in the U.S. Navy. Since that time Walt has devoted his life to teaching diving, rescue, recovery and diver safety to thousands of fire, police, EMS, military, and sport divers. Walt Founded Lifeguard Systems to further these efforts. In the 1970’s he and the Lifeguard Systems staff trained FDNY Rescue Companies Dive Team for over a hundred hours per year for several years. Walt moved onto train many other departments including the U.S. Parks Dept., Washington DC FAA, Washington DC FD, South African Dive teams, and diver and teams in over 15 countries. Walt became a prolific writer and started a diving column in Fire Engineering Magazine, and wrote for several other diving journals. He developed several three-projector slide shows and audiovisuals about public safety and sport diving rescue. Many of the slides and photos used in the shows and publications around the world.