By John Christopher Fine
Jeff Croft and his wife Karen recently traveled from Pennsylvania to Islamorada to pay tribute to his late father Robert A. “Bob” Croft at the History of Diving Museum.
There, a permanent exhibit chronicled the achievements of Bob Croft in a display about free diving. Born July 19, 1934, Croft joined the U.S. Navy as a diver in 1951. He served on seven submarines and two experimental diving vehicles. The Navy discovered Croft’s extraordinary breath-holding capabilities, timed underwater for 6 minutes 40 seconds.
The Navy began experiments hooking Croft up to instruments, recording his heart rate, taking breath samples and recording deep breath-holding dives. On Feb. 8, 1967, Croft held the record breath-hold dive to 212 feet. He broke that record the next year, diving to 217 feet, only to surpass his own world record in 1969, diving to 240 feet then pulling himself up a line for a total time underwater of 2 minutes 28 seconds.
While Croft’s records have since been broken, he was the first, under medical supervision, to dive to those depths.
The family presented Croft’s 2016 NOGI statuette, which is considered the diving world’s oldest and most prestigious international award. Jeff Croft presented the museum with the statue, special contact lenses Croft wore and memorabilia from the family collection.
Jeff Croft described his father’s method of using his tongue to force air into his large lungs increasing their capacity. This prompted Navy doctors to take interest and begin experiments submerging Croft in tanks wearing monitoring equipment.
Croft later worked as an instructor in submarine escape techniques at the Navy base in Groton, Connecticut. He held many diver training positions and continued to present programs about diving until his death on Jan. 9, 2026 at the age of 91.
In trying to find a way to get the word out about his father’s accomplishments to inspire others, Jeff Croft met Sally Bauer, who, along with her late husband Joe Bauer, founded the History of Diving Museum at a Diving Equipment and Marketing Association meeting. The event was also attended by Lisa Mongelia, the museum’s executive director. The relationship continued and the Croft family donated many of Bob’s mementos to the museum. The recent event featured a film about Bob Croft’s deep dives and experimental work.
“Dad was a pretty gentle person growing up,” Jeff said to the audience gathered for the presentation. “He had Navy discipline. Saturday morning he would get us up early and have us cleaning up our rooms. When laundry was done it would be left on our beds for us to put away. I have wonderful memories of going with dad to the submarine base, even aboard a submarine where they let me take the helm on the surface.”
Jeff Croft joined the Navy and entered submarine service himself. The Croft family made it possible for the museum to enhance its freediving displays with gifts of lasting importance to further education and the history of diving.
