Bob Meistrell

Robert "Bob" Meistrell was an American businessman, philanthropist, surfer and diver, born on July 31, 1928 in Boonville, Missouri, who died on June 16, 2013 at Catalina Island. With his identical twin brother Bill and partner Bev Morgan he helped develop and market the first commercial neoprene wetsuit, a business that grew from the Dive N' Surf shop in Redondo Beach into the Body Glove brand, a 200 million dollar annual enterprise by 2013. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War and worked as a Los Angeles County lifeguard. He taught diving to film actors preparing for roles, built one-man submarines to search the seabed, and in the early 1990s helped found the Catalina Conservancy Divers, a volunteer group that protects and restores the waters around the island.