| Biography Joel S. Fogel |
1966 - Sailed a 30-foot Folkboat sloop single-handed through the South Pacific.
1968 - Motorcycled from Alaska to South America for one year.
1970 - Paddled a kayak from NY to Miami to film water pollution on the Intra Coastal Waterway. Wrote "Forty Days and Forty Nights: The Destruction of Our Eastern Seaboard". Lobbied for the Clean Water Act. Wrote 5-part series, "Our Polluted Waterways" for the North American Newspaper Alliance which appeared in newspapers throughout the U.S.
1971 - Toured the Rhine and Rhone Rivers through Germany and France by kayak to report on water conditions in Europe.
1972 - Kayaked through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River to report on water conditions and lobby for controls on outfitters.
1973 - Discovered and lived with Stone Age tribe on the Omo River in Ethiopia. Carried the Explorer's Club flag on this expedition made in cooperation with Smithsonian Institute.
1975 - Explored underwater caves and caverns of Rio Camuy in Puerto Rico.
1979 - Filmed and wrote about the Nicaraguan Civil War for the New York Times New Syndicate after living with the Sandinistas for three months. Wrote "NOTES FROM THE FRONT, a 3-part series."
1986 - Led Maroni River expedition to film and study the Guyana tribes in the Amazon Basin for film documentary,"Twilight of the Primitive". Carried the Explorer's Club flag.
1986 - Saved the life of a young woman whose car went off a bridge into 40 feet of ice water on Christmas Eve. Awarded commendation from President Reagan. Nominated for the Carnegie Hero Award.
1987 - Explored by kayak the Great Bend and Triger Leap Gorges on the Yangtze River in China. Carried the Explorer's Club flag on this Sino-American expedition to site a hydro-electric power plant. Contributed to book: "Riding the Dragon's Back: Down the Yangtze River".
1990 - Paddled kayak from NY to FLA to sruvey and review water quality conditions along the East Coast. Lobbied for the Beach Bill requiring uniform water quality standards across the U.S.
1991 - Paddled kayak from Seattle to San Diego to survey and review water quality conditions along the West Coast.
1992 - Paddled kayak from St. Paul, MO to New Orleans, LA on the Mississippi River for two months to survey and review water quality conditions.
1993 - Awarded the Audubon Society's Golden Osprey Award for environmental awareness.
1994 - Participated in Academy of Natural Science study of the Zebra Mussel on the Volga River, Russia.
1995 - 2000 Worked as a Screen Actors Guild Actor in 10 major motion pictures including Rocky V, Dead Poets Soceity, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Passenger 57.
2000 -Supported Delaware University ANTARCTIC Expedition to study genetic effects of Crill in cold water environments.
2001 -Supported Yukon River Expedition from Whitehall to the Bering Sea for the purpose of studying water quality.
2002 - Attended Sea School and Coast Guard training to recieve 100-TON Merchant Marine License. PRESENTLY UPGRADING LICENSE TO "ALL SEAS" AND INCREASING SEA TIME ABOARD CRUISE SHIPS FOR POSITION AS CAPTAIN.
2003 - Acquired pilot's license and became a Basic Flight Instructor. TRAINED OVER 300 STUDENTS IN THE FLYING INFLATABLE BOAT.
2004 - Awarded the Explorer of the Year Award from the Philadelphia Chapter. Currently sit on Board of Directors as Chairman of Environmental Affairs and Global Water Quality.
2005 - Gold Medal Winner of the USLA (United States Lifesaving Association's) Mid-Atlantic Regional Lifeguard Championships: 2 KM Beach Run, Ocean Swim, Surfboat Race and Paddle Board Competition. Silver Medal Winner of USLA National Lifeguard Championships: American Iron Man and the Surfboat Race.
2006 -INVITED TO COMPETE IN THE INTERNATIONAL LIFESAVING COMPETITIONS AT MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, REPRESENTING THE USA IN THE IRONMAN Race,
A Life Well Lived
In 1987, I was first to explore the Upper Yangtze River in China by kayak through the Great Bend Gorge. We were 17 men and one woman, composed of topographers, geologists and professional river-runners. The story was told in Riding the Dragon’s Back: Down the Yangtze River.
My desire to explore first hit me in two places, at school and at work. I was about 10, listening to the teacher drone on, pointing to a map. Outside, a typical nor’easter blew off the sea in Atlantic City, NJ. Casinos hadn’t arrived yet. It was 1954.
“Pay attention, Mr. Fogel,” the authoritative figure yelped, slapping his pointer against the blackboard. “If you ever want to learn anything, you must stop daydreaming!”
The rain pounded against the window, but I was off, mentally traveling down some dark jungle river which the map showed only as a green curving line. That day taught me that we must first dream in order to live our dreams. My teacher was wrong. The dream would someday lead me to a reality which I could never have imagined.
Two years later, I was sitting in my father’s office. He manufactured commercial refrigerators in Philadelphia. On the weekend, I would travel to the factory to be “exposed to the family business.” On top of his large wooden desk sat a catalogue of dealers and salesmen. The bright fluorescent lighting glared down on black-and-white photographs of face after autonomous face staring back at me. They were all smiling and suddenly I was lost in a maze of men in grey flannel suits. Something clicked...I was determined at that moment that I only wanted one thing: to live an interesting life.
Later, after many adventures and expeditions, I would articulate my feelings in a documentary done about me called Challenging China’s Yangtze: “If you’re lucky, you are only going to live 100 years. There is a lot to see. I already know what my place and people are like. Now I want to know what the rest of the world is like.”
The sea was my first turning point. My grandfather, a commercial fisherman, took me in his vessel, The Bluefish, for days on end. I was only 5 or 6. I used to get really sick, and complain that I wanted to go home. “The sea is your home,” grizzled old Captain Joe Broome would chuckle. “She’s your Home and your Mother...so learn to love Her and stop squallin’.”
In school, sitting at my cramped wooden desk, I would dream. At work in my father’s factory, sweeping the floor, I would dream more.
Later, when I was about 16, I became a lifeguard on the Margate City Beach Patrol. That was great...saving people from the sea and being admired by pretty girls. That job nearly spoiled me for life.
At the University of Hawaii, where I studied Marine Zoology and worked as an assistant curator at the Sea Life Park on Oahu, I met Mr. Jacques Cousteau while working on the Conshelf Project. I was assigned to him as a “runner”—running for gas, food and coffee for him and his Navy divers. Captain Cousteau taught me a lot. He gave me a deep respect for Mother Ocean and all that She does for us. “Remember,” he said, “the Ocean has given us everything! We are from Her.”
In 1970, with his encouragement, I paddled a kayak from New York to Florida to film and report on water pollution. This was the beginning of WATERWATCH International, a non-profit worldwide water monitoring group which I founded to educate the public about the need for clean water. And it led to Lowell Thomas sponsoring me into The Explorers Club.
Exploration is the poetry of life and explorers are the poets of action.
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CAPTAIN JOEL FOGEL, a 100-ton Coast Guard captain, was born in 1944 and has led nearly two dozen major expeditions, everything from living with an Ethiopian stone age tribe, to exploring underwater caves in Puerto Rico to documenting, in Twilight of the Primitive, an Amazon tribe, to studying Volga mussels. He worked for the Fogel/Jordan Commercial Refrigerator Co. for nearly 40 years as VP of International Marketing, but eschewed gray flannel. A holder of the Audubon Society’s Golden Osprey Award for environmental awareness, he’s kayaked the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi, and the lengths of both US coasts reporting on water quality. He’s appeared in 10 movies, including Rocky V and Dead Poet’s Society. After saving a woman whose car went off a bridge into ice water he was awarded a commendation from President Reagan and was nominated for the Carnegie Hero Award.
Joel and Coty have Sandy, William, Ellen, Anna and Jolina, and six grandchildren. They split their year between homes in Somers Point, New Jersey, and Manzanillo, Mexico.