by Dr. Iain
Corness
One
of the local ‘characters’ is Dave Doll, known in the underwater
circles as ‘Diver’ Dave, but there’s a lot more to Dave Doll than
blowing bubbles underwater! He is the managing director of his own
company, Sea and Oilfield Services, but that is only one of his
endeavours. There are more, many more. In fact Dave, whose star sign is
Gemini (the twins), says, “I’m a true Gemini - there’s two of me.
One’s a diver and the other runs through jungles. I enjoy both
aspects.” With such an introduction, I knew this had to be an
interesting man.
Dave is an American, and still considers himself an
American, even though he has not been back since 1970. He was the eldest
son of a farmer and landscaper from Cleveland Ohio, and many times during
the interview acknowledged his father’s teachings, including the
‘golden rule’ of “Do unto others as you would want to be done by”.
Dave enjoyed the farm life. “The physical side and
the freedom,” and would work hard in school for the first semesters to
gain enough points to pass the year, and then he would go and work on the
family farm, not reappearing at school till the following year. Even as a
young teenager, Dave Doll was showing an independent streak that would
stand him in good stead for the rest of his life.
He finished school and went to college for a year to do
business administration, but at the same time, the Gemini man undertook an
apprenticeship as a stone mason. That physical need again.
However, at this time, Uncle Sam was looking for young
men for the draft, but since Dave had spent his weekends flying training
and had qualified for his private pilot’s license, he decided he would
enlist, so that he could choose the US Air Force, rather than being
drafted somewhere he did not want.
Unfortunately for private pilot Doll D., the USAF
insisted that their pilots had a college degree first, so Dave was trained
to be an equipment repairman. He lasted “Three years, seven months,
fourteen days. I was impressed,” said Dave, “But not favourably!”
However, even though he did not realize it at the time,
the experience would have a great influence on his life. He was sent to
Thailand for two of those years. “When I got here (Thailand), I didn’t
want to go back.” During his stay with the USAF here he toured all over
Thailand on a Honda 350 motorcycle, and saw as much of the country as he
could. “The people were good and you could easily live off your
salary.”
After his return to the US he did not last too long in
his home country, and three months later was in Vietnam as a heavy
equipment mechanic, working for a company supplying expertise to the US
Navy, Army and Air Force.
After his contract finished, he jumped over to
Thailand, working here installing telephone cabling systems, but was soon
asked to go to Irianjaya to build drilling sites in the jungles. This was
starting from the ground up, where he would clear the land for the camp
site, build the airstrip and hangers, then helipads and the drilling
operation itself. The man running through the jungles was certainly in the
thick of it.
He repeated the performance in many countries,
including Sulawesi and Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea. “They were in
remote areas, but I love it,” said Dave. “I can put up with it more
than civilization. You also are training and supervising locals. It can
give you self pride and accomplishment.”
Like all off-shore workers, Dave would be working in
the jungle for three months, then return to his home, which by now was
Thailand, for the next few months. What did he do here? Put his feet up?
Not likely! No, Dave had opened his first dive shop here in 1977 and he
would return to teach people how to dive. Some of his pupils have been the
first accredited instructors for Hong Kong and Korea. He also taught most
of Thailand’s commercial divers, by this stage being fluent in Thai. In
1982 he opened Sea and Oilfield Services and became the first commercial
diving company in Thailand.
The Gemini (underwater) man has been consistently
building up this other side of his life and by this stage is well known
for his underwater cabling capabilities, and also for his neoprene
wet-suits that he manufactures.
Now aged 57, I asked Dave had he done everything.
“I’ve climbed the mountains, swum the seas and jumped out of
airplanes, but I’m still learning every day. The day I stop learning is
the day I die,” he said with finality.
So Dave is still very active with Sea and Oilfield
Services. “That’s what I’m doing now. It takes me all over Asia and
this is still ongoing. In between times I’ll be building shelters for
children.”
This is another of Dave’s projects, and readers of
the Pattaya Mail will remember that the local Masonic Lodge, of which Dave
is a member, became involved with the rebuilding of Phuket after the
tsunami ravaged the coastline. Dave, in conjunction with a couple of
others, designed demountable shelters that have been built in Maptaput,
disassembled and then transported and reassembled in Phuket to be used as
temporary schools for the children in the South. For Dave Doll, this just
a simple back to jungle routine. “You cut the forests down. You level
everything and build. But this time man didn’t clear the beaches, Mother
Nature did.”
Mother Nature and Dave do make good partners however.
He enjoys his country retreat, where he has his own little farm, with
ducks and geese. “I’m perfectly happy blending in with the Thai
community. I understand Asian thinking and their ways, but I still live by
American standards.”
Dave Doll is both a homespun philosopher and
philanthropist. A very surprising man, a Gemini man!
