By Carla Charter

Before there were state and regional dive teams, there was the Athol Frogmen.

“Scuba diving was in its infancy when it started,” according to Jerry Lozier, retired Athol Firefighter and former Frogmen member and past president. “The fire, police and state police did not have dive teams. We offered our services because we were a good team experienced in recovery.”

The organization was started in July 1958 by John L. Springer Jr.,who served as its first president, Donald Truehart, who served as vice president and Herve Cormier, who was the first secretary/treasurer. At the height of membership there were 30-plus members, Lozier said. Not all members chose to be part of the recovery team.

Lozier joined the team after he injured his foot and was laid up, he said. He was visiting his grandparents when Boyle and McCarthy also visited. Lozier’s uncle Claude Chiasson lived there as well and owned a laminating machine and Boyle and McCarthy came over to get the Frogmen membership cards laminated.

“They asked if I would like to join and I replied, ‘Yeah, I think I will.’ That was in January of 1962. I became a firefighter after serving on the dive team,” Lozier said, adding that a good number of firefighters were members of the Athol Frogmen. Among these firemen who were also Frogmen included Truehart, Leo McCarthy, who served as safety officer and Norman R. Boyle Jr., who served as a training officer.

“We covered 42 towns,” Lozier said.

The recovery team worked with tri-state and mid-state mutual aid. Along with recoveries of drowning victims, the team also recovered items for the police department, and even dove at several reservoirs to fix the water gates under water. The Frogmen also brought up the Native American Mishoon dugout canoe, which was discovered underwater at Queen Lake in Phillipston.

The Frogmen were also members of the Massachusetts Skin Diving Association and Lozier remembered the team participating in an association Crayfish Competition at Lake Whalom. The competition, he explained, involved digging out bagfuls of crayfish.

“We won a trophy for that,” he said.

Lozier also remembered a convention held by the state association in Boston. Among the celebrities at the convention were Herb Shriner, a TV personality and radio host and well-known ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau.

“Don Truehart and Boyle got to meet him (Cousteau),” Lozier said.

The frogmen also did recreational dives across New England including at Cape Ann, Sandwich Beach, at Point Judith, R.I., and Lozier said he dove off of Northern New Brunswick,

As Lozier became busier with his young family he stopped diving. In the 1980s the Athol Frogmen disbanded.

Carla Charter is a freelance writer from Phillipston. Her writing focuses on the history of the North Quabbin area. Contact her at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net.

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