Rechnitzer, Andreas B.

Andreas "Andy" B. Rechnitzer (1924-2005) was a student of Scripps Professor Dr. Carl Hubbs. In 1955, Hubbs and Rechnitzer discovered and identified the striped yellow fish that now serves as the official logo of Scripps' Birch Aquarium (Chaetodon falcifer). While at Scripps, then part of UCLA, Andy, Connie Limbaugh, and Jim Stewart developed the first SCUBA diver training program for ocean scientists, which included such innovations as ditch-and-don, buddy breathing, and the buddy system. As a member of the U.S. Navy-ONR Evaluation team, Rechnitzer was instrumental in negotiating the purchase of the deep diving bathyscaphe, Trieste, from Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard. He, along with Scripps alumni, Art Maxwell, Scripps researcher Willard Bascom, and Captain Charles Bishop, USN, (later with MPL), had Trieste brought from Italy to San Diego's Naval Electronics Lab (NEL), on Point Loma. He was appointed made Scientist-in-Charge of Project NEKTON. On January 23, 1960, Trieste dove with pilot Don Walsh and observer Jacques Piccard to 35,800-ft into the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean depth. The success kick-started deep submergence development in the U.S., and many businesses in San Diego. Rechnitzer was awarded the Navy Department Distinguished Civilian Service Award by President Dwight Eisenhower. He then led the development of the Beaver IV diver LILO submersible at Rockwell International. Andy then joined the scientific staff of the Chief of Naval Operations and Oceanographer of the Navy from 1970-1984. He later joined SAIC as Senior Scientist from 1985 to 1998.