Miscellaneous Mike Activities
Topic Content on this Page:
Ordered Top to Bottom
o - Mary Pufahl White Coat Ceremony
o - Mike's visit to Great Lakes Shipwreck Musem & Daniel J. Morrell Exhibit
o - Placement of plaque for John R Garner at Petosky Diver's Underwater Shrine
o - Interview w/ Keith & Chad about diving Mexico's Cenotes
o - Visit to Mackinaw Island & visit with Beth Pufahl (working with Girl Scout's honor flag)
o - Mike's visit to Great Lakes Shipwreck Musem & Daniel J. Morrell Exhibit
o - Placement of plaque for John R Garner at Petosky Diver's Underwater Shrine
o - Interview w/ Keith & Chad about diving Mexico's Cenotes
o - Visit to Mackinaw Island & visit with Beth Pufahl (working with Girl Scout's honor flag)
Mary Pufahl MSU "White Coat Ceremony"
Mary Pufahl is like a granddaughter of mine. We have bonded over many things ... helping her study for her medical MCAT test, two SCUBA diving trips to Roatan, etc. Her mother, Beth, is my "pseudo-daughter" ... the daughter I wished I had. So, Beth & her family and her three children (Mary, Emma, & Tom) are all very close to me. As are the other Garner family members.
On 19 Aug 2023 Mary was admitted to Michigan State University's MD medical school! This first "official" acts involves what is called a "White Coat Ceremony". The entering students are administered the school's med school oath and then presented a white SHORT lab coat typical of what medical doctors wear. Their first coat is short and is mandatory attire for some of their class work and then for their "clinical" studies in year 3 & 4. When they graduate, they are awarded a LONG white lab coat!!!! So, this represents a very important point in their endeavors over the coming years of school and then professional career.
In the video below you will see some of the highlights of Mary's White Coat Ceremony.
Mary ... all our good wishes will follow you over the next years of your study. All of us are extremely proud of you!!!
On 19 Aug 2023 Mary was admitted to Michigan State University's MD medical school! This first "official" acts involves what is called a "White Coat Ceremony". The entering students are administered the school's med school oath and then presented a white SHORT lab coat typical of what medical doctors wear. Their first coat is short and is mandatory attire for some of their class work and then for their "clinical" studies in year 3 & 4. When they graduate, they are awarded a LONG white lab coat!!!! So, this represents a very important point in their endeavors over the coming years of school and then professional career.
In the video below you will see some of the highlights of Mary's White Coat Ceremony.
Mary ... all our good wishes will follow you over the next years of your study. All of us are extremely proud of you!!!
12 Aug 2023: Mike visit to Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
In 1974 the team of Undersea Research Associates (URA) discovered the long-lost major shipwreck Daniel J. Morrell in Lake Huron! A historic story of a tragety .. which left only a single survivor to tell the story! The ship was broken into two almost equal halfs (bow & stern) and sank nearly five miles apart.
When the sole survivor (Dennis Hale) passed away on September 2, 2015. Twenty nine other sailors perished during the sinking. Thirty families suffered the loss of life. With the loss of Denis, with the help of a close family friend (John DeBeck) an effort was undertaken to try to preserve all of the Morrell artifacts collected over the years since the sinking. All of the 29 families also contributed to this effort. |
Cooperation was obtained with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum located at Whitefish Point in Upper Michigan to dedicate an entire room to display the artifacts! DeBeck reached out to URA as we were the group that had discovered the lost shipwreck & had a critical part of the Morrell story.
The entire summer of 2019 URA dove numerous dives on both the stern and the bow. Over one terabyte of video was collected. It was again dove the summer of 2020 to go back into the bowels of the stern to research the positioning valves and gauges, etc. There was also a large effort to examine the status of the hatch latches, etc.
The museum had requested video from these dives to add to the museum's dedicated exhibit room. Mike Michaels spent hundreds of hours producing eight videos supporting this effort. Combing the 1TB of video was a huge undertaking. Picking out only a small portion of video to produce the museum's and URA's video involved considerable editing, video enhancing, labeling, etc. You can view several of these videos on this website under the URA Shipwreck Discoveries section at this link: Daniel J. Morrell Museum Videos
Below is a slideshow of the museum and the Morrell exhibit.
The entire summer of 2019 URA dove numerous dives on both the stern and the bow. Over one terabyte of video was collected. It was again dove the summer of 2020 to go back into the bowels of the stern to research the positioning valves and gauges, etc. There was also a large effort to examine the status of the hatch latches, etc.
The museum had requested video from these dives to add to the museum's dedicated exhibit room. Mike Michaels spent hundreds of hours producing eight videos supporting this effort. Combing the 1TB of video was a huge undertaking. Picking out only a small portion of video to produce the museum's and URA's video involved considerable editing, video enhancing, labeling, etc. You can view several of these videos on this website under the URA Shipwreck Discoveries section at this link: Daniel J. Morrell Museum Videos
Below is a slideshow of the museum and the Morrell exhibit.
05 Aug 2023: Diver's Shrine & John Garner Sr plack placement
John Reese Garner (Sr.) passed away this last year (2022). John & I go all the way back to the mid-early 1950's and were close friends and dive buddies. We took one of the very first NAUI SCUBA instructor classes together & have dived many shipwrecks, ice dives, & more over the years. On 05 Aug 2023 divers who knew & were friends with John placed a dedicated plaque down at the Petoskey, MI diver's underwater shrine. His history & lots of old images & the underwater shrine are in the video below. Special thanks to Mike Fabien for the underwater video (I have enhanced with contrast, brightness, vividness, temperature, etc.).
There are plans pending for another dive on the shrine next summer (2024).
There are plans pending for another dive on the shrine next summer (2024).
Diving Mexico's Cenotes - Where to go ...
Keith & Chad talk about diving in Mexico's Cenotes. Both have dove sites there since 2012 multiple times per year. Great advice for those thinking about diving there.
Visit to Mackinac Island
On Friday 11 Aug 2023 I had the opportunity to drive up to Mackinac Island before continuing north to the museum at Whitefish Point (See above). Elizabeth Pufahl has been in Girl Scout leadership for many years! Both of her daughters spent time on the Mackinac Island honor flag duty for years each. The duty is split between groups of Girl Scouts & Boy Scouts. They are responsible for raising and lowering the flags around the island every day. No daughters with Beth this trip ... both grown up and gone from home. So, it made a nice break for the two of us to have a breakfast, walk & shop the main street and just catch up for half a day in the morning!
Here are some of the images from the short visit. Mackinaw Island is always a nice place to visit!!!!!!!
Here are some of the images from the short visit. Mackinaw Island is always a nice place to visit!!!!!!!