Captain Fogel

A member of The Explorers Club since 1972, Fogel was recognized by the Chapter for a lifetime of exploration, including significant work in evaluating water quality and promoting clean water, as well as his tireless support of the Chapter as "Explorer of the Year" in 2004.

It's a great honor to be recognized by colleagues and associates who know what the passion of exploration is about," said Fogel. "Whether undersea, in outer space, down the river, up the mountain or into innerspace pursuits like medicine, genetics and psychiatry, our members have excelled in all of these fields and more. Knowing them has enriched my life."

He continued, "In an age when people are taught to value security and avoid risk at all costs, The Explorers Club teaches you to be a poet of action to take calculated risks for the benefit of science and to gather knowledge that will enhance various fields of study. It is important to have an organization that places a value on these endeavors and supports them."

Fogel has been head of the Environmental Affairs for the Philadelphia Chapter of The Explorers Club for the past 10 years. He also is President of the Waterwatch International and sits on the advisory council of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority's Groundwater Advisory Committee. This year, Captain Fogel was nominated by ACUA for the CNN Hero of the Year Award for his clean water projects around the globe. The South Jersey native was also nominated this year for The Lowell Thomas Award for humanitarian work in Ethiopia during an anthropological expedition in 1973. His other awards include two Presidential Commendations for environmental work and a Carnegie Hero Award nomination for the rescue of a young woman in 1986 when her car went into the bay on Christmas Eve.

Born in Atlantic City, NJ, Fogel studied marine zoology at the University of Hawaii on Oahu, where he became involved with Jacques Cousteau's CONSHELF: Man in the Sea project. He also single-handedly sailed a 30-foot Danish folkboat from Hawaii throughout the South Pacific, detailing his journeys in the book South Sea Odyssey. In 1969, during a 10,000-mile motorcycle trip from Alaska to South America which was documented in his Cycle Guide Article, "Journey Through Latin America", he met his wife, Coty.