Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives
Lawrence Allen Shumaker Papers, 1958 - 2009
2011-11
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives
- Creator
- Shumaker, Lawrence Allen, 1932-2008
- Title
- Lawrence Allen Shumaker Papers
- ID
- 2011-11
- Date
- 1958 - 2009
- Extent
- 1.51 Cubic feet : 3 manuscript boxes, 1 legal manuscript box, 1 map case folder
- Language
- English
Preferred Citation
Lawrence Allen Shumaker Papers, 1958-2009, 2011-11. Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives, University of California, San Diego Libraries.
Biographical Note
Lawrence “Larry” Allen Shumaker was born February 13, 1932 in Los Angeles to Neilson Free Shumaker (1902-1986) and Edith Emery Shumaker (b.1906). His mother remarried, and he also used his stepfather’s surname of Archer. He began his oceanographic career as a Sea Scout with the Boy Scouts of America.
After attending East Los Angeles Junior College, Shumaker enrolled at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was a classmate of Don Walsh, and he graduated in 1954 with a B.S. in engineering. Shumaker later attended the US Naval Submarine School in New London, Connecticut in 1957, took graduate courses in geology and oceanography at San Diego State University and University of California Extension in San Diego in 1960-1961, and attended the Prospective Submarine Commanding Officer School in 1963.
Shumaker spent sixteen years in active service in the US Navy , including service aboard the USS Mansfield (1954-1956) and submarines USS Bonita (1957), USS Rasher (1958-1959), USS Caiman (1962) and USS Capitaine (1963). He was stationed at the US Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego from 1959-1962 and 1964-1965, at the Bureau of Ships in Washington, DC, from 1965-1966, and the US Naval Amphibious School Special Operations Department in Coronado in 1966.
While stationed at NEL, Shumaker joined the crew of the bathyscaph Trieste as assistant officer in charge, working under Lt. Don Walsh. He provided surface support for the record setting dive of Trieste to 35,800 feet in the Marianas Trench on January 23, 1960. Although Shumaker did not make the deepest dive himself, he piloted Trieste on test dives and on another deep dive to 19,000 feet.
Shumaker received a commendation for President Eisenhower for his work with Trieste, along with Don Walsh, Jacques Piccard, and Andreas Rechnitzer. Shumaker listed the record dive in his resume as simply “the successful team effort of accomplishing a manned dive of 35,803 feet.”
From 1964-1965, Shumaker served as chief pilot of Trieste II and was involved in the search for the wreck of the submarine USS Thresher. After leaving active service in 1966, he joined the US Naval Reserve Submarine Division and was awarded the rank of Commander in 1968.
His first civilian employment was with Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California as a research specialist in 1966 and then with the Lockheed Ocean Laboratory in San Diego in 1967. By 1969, he was group engineer and chief pilot of Submersible Operations for Lockheed. He created a training program for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) pilots, was chief pilot for the Deep Quest submersible, and was test pilot for the Navy’s DSRV-1 and DSRV-2 submersibles, which were built at Lockheed.
In 1973, Shumaker left Lockheed for the Deep Submergence Engineering and Operations Section at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he managed operations for the submersible Alvin and its support ship Lulu, and led five exploration expeditions.
Shumaker continued his career at the Fluor Corporation in Irvine, where he managed operations of experimental offshore oil platforms from 1978-1979, and at Interstate Electronics Corporation in Anaheim, where he was in charge of operations of the Ocean Survey Vessel Antelope from 1979-1980. He directed the Ocean Sciences Department at IEC from 1980-1984.
He spent the next year as director of Undersea Programs for Frequency Engineering Laboratories in Farmingdale, New Jersey, and then two years as a consultant to companies writing proposals to the US Navy. In 1987, he joined General Offshore Corporation in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where he ran the US Navy Sonobuoy Quality Assurance Program until 1992. He then returned to WHOI as a relief expedition leader for the Deep Submersible Operations Group until 1996. In 1999, Shumaker worked as dive supervisor for the DeepWorker 2000 submersible.
A member of the Marine Technology Society, the Navy League of the United States, and the Explorers Club, Shumaker also founded the Deep Submersible Pilots Association in 1967 and was its first president. He was awarded the Chicago Geographic Society Gold Medal and the first Richard Hopper Day Memorial Medal for Exploration and Discovery from the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, both in 1960.
Shumaker married Ione “Corky” Elizabeth Beck (1930-2006) in 1954. They had four children together and remained married until her death in 2006. Three of his children (Lawrence, Kurt and Erica) predeceased him. Cmdr. Shumaker died at the age of 76 on October 21, 2008. He was survived by his sister, Marsha Olvito; daughter, Suzanne Shumaker; and nine grandchildren.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of the papers of Navy commander and explorer Lawrence Allen Shumaker, including correspondence, news clippings, dive logs and reports on submersibles Trieste, Trieste II, Alvin, Deep Quest, DeepWorker 2000, DSRV-1 and DSRV-2, and deep submergence vehicle training programs.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives
University of California San Diego9500 Gilman Drive #0219
La Jolla, California, 92093-0219
Provenance
The Lawrence Allen Shumaker Papers were received from Suzanne Shumaker on 14 December 2010.
Related Materials
Related Materials
The Scripps Archives has the following collections related to the Lawrence Allen Shumaker Papers:
95-11, Robert Sinclair Dietz Papers, 1905-1994.
Dives of the Bathyscaph Trieste, 1958-1963: Transcriptions of Sixty-One Dictabelt Recordings in the Robert Sinclair Dietz Papers, 1905-1994, 95-11. http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/hist/Dives%20Bathyscaph%20Trieste%20Dictabelts.pdf
2001-19, Robert Raymond Hessler Papers, 1949-2000.
2005-40, SIO Communications Office Records, 1967-2008.
2006-01, A Memorial, and a Celebration of Life to Andy Rechnitzer, 23 October 2005. Videorecording.
2010-02 and 2010-20, Trieste 50th Anniversary of Man’s Deepest Dive, 23 January 2010. Audio and videorecordings.
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Name(s)
- Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.
- US Naval Electronics Laboratory.
Personal Name(s)
- Piccard, Jacques, 1922-2008
- Rechnitzer, Andreas Buchwald, 1924-2005
- Shumaker, Lawrence Allen, 1932-2008
- Walsh, Don, 1931-
Subject(s)
- Alvin (Submersible)
- Deep Quest (Submersible)
- DeepWorker 2000 (Submersible)
- Marianas Trench
- Trieste (Bathyscaph)
- Trieste II (Bathyscaph)
- Underwater Exploration
Collection Inventory
Biographical Information, Lawrence Shumaker, 1968 - 2009
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Deep Quest |
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Deep Quest (SAS), 1969
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Activity Reports |
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1967
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1968
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1970
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1971
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1972
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Correspondence, 1966
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D.Q. Flash Reports, 1969
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Deep Quest Dive Records, 1968 - 1972
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Deep Quest Log Notes, 10 July 1968 - 4 February 1969
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Deep Quest Santa Monica Bay Search & Recovery Operations, 17 January to 5 March 1969
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Chronological Files |
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1958 - 1963
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1964
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1969
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Dive Logs |
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Personal Dive Log |
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1974
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1973 - 1977
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Personal Dive Record, 1959 - 1996
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Log Book, 1962 - 1964
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L.A. Shumaker, 24 July - 3 August 1978
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Bathyscaph Trieste |
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1960
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Design of the Bathyscaph Trieste II, c1964
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Trieste II Dive Records, 1958 - 1964
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Trieste Dive Summary |
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1960 - 1961
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1958 - 1962
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Review of Bathyscaph Trieste Operations, 1958 - 1961. December 1961
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Trieste II Dive Logs, 1964 - 1965
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DeepWorker Dive Logs, 1999
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Alvin/Lulu |
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Dive Summary, 1964 - 1978
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Alvin Dive Logs, 1976 - 2008
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Alvin & Cayman. Tony's Training, Cayman Islands, 1993
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Deep Submergence Vehicle |
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Final Report on Deep Submergence Research Conducted During the Period 16 June 1961 through 31 December 1973. WHOI, June 1974.
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International Maritime, Inc. (IMI) Deep Submersible Vehicle (DSV) Training Program Prospectus, 1993
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DSRV-1 Mystic, c1994
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Azors, [Exploring Hydrospace, n.d.]
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Bermuda Visit Notes, n.d.
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Environmental Hazards to Submersible Operations, n.d.
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Discovering Earth's Final Frontier: A US Strategy for Ocean Exploration, 2000
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Correspondence, 1999 - 2004
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Interdepartmental Communications, 1967 - 1969
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Investigation, 1963 - 1964
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Member Lists, 1962 - 2004
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Articles and Manuscripts, 1961 - 1978
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DSRV Alvin: A Review of Accomplishments. WHOI, January 1977
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"Why Deep" Study, 1968 Report. Ocean Systems Research and Development Division, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.
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News Clips, 1960 - 1962
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Oversize | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Certificate, Submarine Force, US Pacific Fleet, 12 April 1963 |
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