A 40-year career ending

ON CALL

Nurse Cheryl Cottrell just after she graduated nursing school, circa 1973, when wearing a white cap and uniform was the norm. ‘They were nice looking but not practical,’ said Cottrell with a laugh about the uniforms. CONTRIBUTED

Longtime nurse devoted her life to taking care of the community

CHARLOTTE TWINE

charlotte@keysweekly.com

Even when she was a little girl, Cheryl Cottrell always wanted to be a nurse. Always. She would play nurse with her dolls and read the “Nurse Sue Barton” series of books. She even considered being a missionary nurse through her Southern Baptist church. “That didn’t happen. I was too strong-willed,” recalled Cottrell with a laugh. “But we can be missionaries in our own backyard.” Which is, in the end, exactly what she did. After growing up in the Upper Keys and graduating from Coral Shores High School, Cottrell studied to be a nurse and followed her calling, practically in her own childhood backyard in the Keys. She received her associate’s degree in nursing from MiamiDade South, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from FIU and a master’s degree in health service administration from Barry University. Along the way, she put in 45 years at both Mariners Hospital and Fishermen’s Community Hospital, now a part of Baptist Health. She rose from a nursing assistant to vice president of nursing services and chief nursing officer. And now, at age 70, she is retiring. Her last day as a nurse will be Dec. 18. But one gets the feeling that her love for nursing runs so deep, she might not be able to stop. “I'm glad I made the decision (to retire),” she said. “It was a hard decision to make. I’ve worked since I was a teenager. Really, I’ve already started to think about whether I’d volunteer somewhere, maybe one day a week. I love what I do, I love being a nurse and a nurse administrator. I work with a great bunch of people. I think we have the best nurses in all of South Florida. My peers in Miami may disagree.” Drew Grossman, CEO of Mariners Hospital & Fishermen’s Community Hospital, pointed out her unflagging devotion to both her profession and the Keys in his announcement of her retirement. “In addition to her daily position, Cheryl is actively involved in Upper Keys community and business organizations,” he wrote. “She has been on the board of directors of Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition since 1992. Also served as the hospital representative on both Key Largo and Ocean Reef chambers of commerce. Today, she continues her membership in the South Florida Organization of Nurse Executives, American Nurses Association and Florida Nurses Association. ... (Cottrell has) served Baptist Health and the Keys community with the utmost dedication, commitment and a legacy that will be hard to match.” Melanie O’Neill is director of nursing services at Mariners and Fishermen's and worked with Cottrell for 22 years. O’Neill witnessed firsthand Cottrell’s commitment to her work. “She’s very humble and goes out of her way,” O’Neill said. “There are so many examples of that. She’ll come in and relieve the nurses. So whatever patient comes through, she makes sure she gets them cleaned up. She does it all the time. It's just amazing that she has no issues getting in the trenches with all of us. She’ll come in the hospital in the middle of the night so she can help people in the community deal with the illness of their loved one. It's almost like she’s on call 24/7. Gayle Maimo, director of cardiopulmonary services at Mariners, worked with Cottrell for 16 years and got to know her well. “She's a very dynamic woman. Very. She's got pictures in her office of her family. She's religious and does a lot for the community. I was impressed she was very involved with Leadership Monroe County while having a busy family life,” said Maimo, pointing out that her coworker and friend is not afraid of hard work that others may consider below their station. “Once, here at Mariners, they didn’t have enough housekeepers to clean,” Maimo remembered. “And she would get out and mop the floors. She would do whatever is needed to do. If you see her now, she wears sneakers with a dress.” “I don’t want to cry, but I'm going to miss her,” said O’Neill. “She’s put other hospitals first for so long, I’m praying she enjoys her time now. Once, she couldn't go on a hike with her sister because something was going on in the hospital. So I pray she takes time for himself now. She is a wonderful, wonderful leader.” The good news is, she’s not going anywhere. For the time being — until she’s compelled to volunteer, like she’s already predicted — Cottrell is going to spend her retirement with her adult children, their spouses and her five grandchildren. “For me, it’s been a privilege to work in this community and make friends with the people I work with and the people I've grown up with,” she said. “It is scary retiring, but I have lots of things I can catch up on. I still live in Key Largo. I live in paradise. Someone asked me if I’ll move. And I think, ‘Well, my house is paid for, and my grandchildren are here.’ So no, I'm not moving.”

Nurse Cheryl Cottrell, right, with Candy Fincke, left, vice president of professional services and Drew Grossman, center, CEO of Mariners Hospital & Fishermen’s Community Hospital at the reopening of Fishermen’s in July. CONTRIBUTED

HARD HATS AND SUNKEN SHIPS

Two avid treasure hunters find their way to the Keys

Art “Silver Bar” McKee is a celebrated Florida Keys treasure hunter. He was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey, on Nov. 2, 1910, and always loved the water. As a young man, he worked as a lifeguard at a New Jersey public pool. When an August storm poured for four hours and dropped 11 inches of rain on and around Bridgeton, two area lakes were overwhelmed, the earthen dams created to contain them cracked and a wall of water pushed down the Cohansey River. The 1934 flood destroyed the bridges connecting the east side of Bridgeton to the west side. The event changed McKee’s life. A hard hat diver was hired to help clear the river of debris. McKee was hired as his assistant and worked as the diver's line tender to make sure there was a constant flow of oxygen. Art was hooked. He wanted to be a hard hat diver. McKee moved to Homestead, Florida, in 1937, where he worked as a lifeguard, saved up some money, and bought a used hard hat diving rig. In 1938, a local fisherman named Reggie Roberts asked McKee if he wanted to see a shipwreck that he had spotted off Key Largo, between Rodriguez and Tavernier keys. The ship was the Capitana, the lead military escort of the ill-fated 1733 Treasure Fleet that was wrecked along the reef line of the Upper Keys by a September hurricane. That wreck was later identified as the Spanish galleon El Rubi. The discovery of El Rubi and subsequent ships from the 1733 fleet has been marked as the modern rediscovery of the lost ships from this tragic fleet. The exploration of that wreck facilitated the progression of Art McKee, lifeguard and hard hat diver, to Art McKee, the father of modern-day treasure hunting. Art McKee was not the first hard hat diver to explore the warm, clear shallows surrounding the Florida Keys, nor the first to salvage sunken ships. He shared that history with the Danish-born Carl Herluf Holm, who, at 12 years of age, ran away from his Copenhagen school and attempted to join an expedition venturing out toward the North Pole. It did not take long for those in charge to discover that Carl was four years shy of the squares had become entangled on unsuspected debris. Upon closer examination of the area, two cannons and ship timbers were reported sticking up from the bottom’s sandy surface. Holm brought his hard hat diving gear and the U.S. Marine Salvage Company to investigate the wreck site. While iron cannons and other unidentified artifacts were recovered, there was no silver, and the ship’s identity was never revealed. It could have been one of the ships destroyed by that September hurricane in 1733 or any one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of other ships wrecked along the Florida Reef. While McKee went on to become synonymous with salvaging ships from the Spanish fleet and earning the honorary title of Father of Modern Treasure Hunting, Holm possibly etched out his own place in the history books. According to the author and local historian Charles Brookfield, in 1934, Carl Holm reportedly dislodged the iron ring famously driven into Black Caesars Rock and used by at least two pirates named Black Caesar. He also sent it to the Smithsonian Institute. On several occasions, I have reached out to the Smithsonian, as well as to individual curators working for the museum, in hopes of finding corroboration about the donation. Without providing additional information, the institution has no way of tracking down the artifact. Also, after 1934, newspaper articles were written about the infamous pirate of Elliott Key named Black Caesar that sometimes mentioned the iron ring or, in some cases, iron rings. These writers claim to have seen the ring still attached to the rock, though it has now long since disappeared. It looks like the whereabouts of the iron ring will remain just another twist in the legendary tale of the pirate Black Caesar and Carl Holm a footnote in the history of the Florida Keys.

Art “Silver Bar” McKee. JERRY WILKINSON COLLECTION/Contributed

minimum crew age of 16. Though the boy was returned to his home, he continued to run away. So, at 14, his father entered him as an unpaid apprentice aboard a Danish navy ship. By 16, he had become the Danish navy’s youngest hard hat underwater diver. Like McKee, Holm found his way to South Florida and settled in the Miami area. He also formed the U.S. Marine Salvage Company. In a 1929 article from The Miami News, Holm confessed, “I love the sea bottom. … I can’t keep away from it. Sometimes I just stop my work ‘down there’ and sit down on a rock to look about. It is fairy land.” According to a 1934 article published in The Miami News, Holm and his crew were investigating a shipwreck discovered near the Florida Reef in the shallow waters surrounding the Florida Keys. Though it was not revealed near which of the islands Holm and his salvage company were exploring, the reason they chose those particular shallows was a familiar one. Some local fishermen had cast their nets near a white, sandy bottom, and the net’s little woven BRAD BERTELLI ... is the curator for Islamorada’s Keys History & Discovery Center. A published author of six books, his favorite subjects are Indian Key and skunk apes.

Nice wahoo caught on the troll. CONTRIBUTED

is the owner of Good Karma Sportfishing Charters. He is also the host of the Good Karma Sportfishing podcast. Connect with Capt. Ryan at www. goodkarmasportfishing.com.

SNATCHING SNAPPERS

Schools of ballyhoo spotted along reef line

CAPT. RYAN VAN FLEET

THIS WEEK’S FISHING REPORT

We are starting to see some big vermilion snappers in the deeper water, as well as yellow eye snappers, on the deeper rock piles from 220 to 450 feet. Also, I’ve been hearing reports and seeing some large schools of ballyhoo along the reef line, and some sailfish. The black grouper fishing has been pretty good, and larger flag yellowtails are showing up along the reef. My favorite depth for fishing both species is between 75 and 100 feet of water. The colder it gets, the better the black grouper fishing gets. And remember, black grouper season closes Jan. 1, so keep an eye out for colder days.

TROLLING TIP — WAHOO FISHING

Don’t be afraid to troll ballyhoo or lures without wire leaders when targeting wahoo. Running long shank hooks or double hooks will keep you connected. I prefer 60-pound mono or fluorocarbon leader to No. 9 long shank hooks when trolling ballyhoo for wahoo. Also, don’t forget to download the free Good Karma Sportfishing app. It has everything from reef weather, solar/lunar, exclusive fishing reports and more.

FISHING TOURNAMENT FIGHTS CYSTIC FIBROSIS

BUFFALO MAN WINS WITH A 43-INCH PERMIT

Jim Bokor Jr.’s permit wins the Sales S.L.A.M. tournament in Key West. CONTRIBUTED

Angler Jim Bokor Jr. of Buffalo, New York, fishing with his friend Dwayne Wesolowski of Buffalo and Capt. Richard Black of Islamorada, won the 2021 Robert James Sales S.L.A.M. Redbone Celebrity Tournament Series in Key West, which kicks off the annual Redbone Celebrity Tournament Series. (S.L.A.M. stands loosely for Southernmost Light Tackle Masters.) The series aims to catch a cure for cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease that affects the lungs, and has contributed millions of dollars since 1999 for cystic fibrosis research. Bokor Jr. was runner-up in 2019 when the tournament was last held, when he caught 20 bonefish and five tarpon. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID. Species sought in the S.L.A.M. are bonefish, tarpon and permit. The S.L.A.M. is followed by the Redbone Celebrity Tournament the first weekend in November and the Redbone Sunset/Sunrise Tarpon Tournament in April. Cloudy weather made sight-fishing difficult this year. Bokor’s team ran north to catch tarpon and caught seven out of 10 seen. Capt. Black said Bokor Jr. caught about five on shrimp and a couple on artificial tackle. The team found bluer skies “much farther north” than Key West, and after about 15 minutes of looking for permit, Bokor had a 43-inch permit that ended up being the tournament’s largest in two days of competitive fishing. Next, they fished for bonefish to complete a “slam of tarpon, permit and bonefish,” and Bokor’s proficiency at fishing a bank nabbed three out of the four bonefish spotted using live shrimp as bait. They had their “slam” by 11 a.m. which enabled them to make their way back to Key West, where the cloudy conditions continued. Still, Bokor caught another bonefish near Key West. The next day, the team aimed for additional points and Bokor caught four bonefish on artificial tackle, and Wesolowski caught four bonefish on bait. Bokor also caught another permit giving him two “slams.” Black had guided Wesolowski and Bokor Jr. in the Keys last winter casting for redfish, so Wesolowski was relatively new to sight fishing and recognized the difficulty and enjoyment of it. Bokor Jr. earned awards in nine out of 15 categories including the runner-up team category. He plans to fish the Redbone Celebrity Tournament set for Nov. 5-7 in Islamorada again with Capt. Black. Carmen Perez Padron of Miami also had a great tournament. She not only won first place among women anglers, but team grand champion title with Paulo Firmo of Miami and Capt. Dave Denkert of Islamorada. William Collier of Atlanta, guided by Capt. Justin Rea of Sugarloaf Key, was the fly division champion. — Contributed

TERRENCE MICHAEL ASH

Dr. Terrence Michael Ash, of Deland, Florida, 70, passed away Sept. 17, 2021, at home. “Terry” was born Sept. 3, 1951, at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He lived in Miami Springs and graduated from Miami Springs Senior High in 1969. He studied at Stetson University and graduated from National College of Chiropractic, Lombard, Illinois in 1975. Soon after graduating from college, Terry began his practice with his father, Dr. Terrence Phillip Ash, Hialeah, and later opened his own practice in Miami Lakes. After his retirement he lived in Tavernier, New Smyrna Beach and Deland. Terry’s interests were family vacations at Disney World, boating, fishing, billiards, property investments, life long studying in economics, government and foreign languages, aikido martial arts, automobiles and Christmas. He bought his first new car at the age of 18, a 1969 metallic silver Corvette with the money he had saved. During the Christmas season, he would choose a family and make their Christmas a little brighter by giving them gifts that accumulated all year long. Terry is preceded in death by his father, Dr. Terrence Phillip Ash, mother, Elizabeth Louise Ash, two brothers, Dennis Randolph and Albert Creighton Ash. He is survived in life by his sister, Elizabeth Adrienne Byrd; son, Terrence Christopher Ash; daughter, Lauren Adrienne Annen; granddaughter, Ruby Elizabeth Annen; two nephews, James Edward Byrd III and Darian Phillip Byrd; and a great niece, Ayla Adele Mclaughlin-Byrd. Lankford Funeral Home and Crematory, of Deland, is in charge of cremation and a memorial will be planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, please carry out an act of kindness for a stranger, friend, loved one, coworker or anyone you choose.

Swimmers dominate against LaSalle

The Coral Shores swimming and diving team won its meet over LaSalle on Sept. 29. The Canes dominated the competition with swimmers who tried new events. Corley Smith had an impressive swim in the 200 individual medley, 2:21.04, and 100 breast, 1:14.38. Olivia Sargent competed in the 50-meter freestyle and recorded a time of 28.17, while Abbie Sargent competed in the 100-meter back and recorded a time of 1:06.13. The girls 200-medley relay team of Andrea Lopez-McNenney, Abbie Sargent, Riley Cooper and Corley Smith dominated with a time of 1:58.62. On the boys side, Patrick O’Donnell dominated the 100-freestyle, 58.46, while Ariel Galvan won the 100-meter breaststroke, 1:21.78. “It was awesome to watch our kids swim new events last week,” said coach Kelly Kater. “I think it really showed how much talent we have on the team and how much fun the postseason should be. I can’t wait to see how we do against Key West this week.” The team competed against Key West on Oct. 6. Results weren't available before press time.

REEF Fest set for water activities

REEF Fest, set for Oct. 14-17 in Key Largo, includes diving, snorkeling, kayak eco-tours, ocean-themed seminars and social events. Since 2015, REEF has hosted REEF Fest each fall in the Florida Keys. Divers, snorkelers, and ocean lovers attend REEF Fest to celebrate their love of marine life and learn about the latest in conservation. After a long stretch apart, Supporting the health and safety of attendees is a top priority. All REEF Fest events, aside from the seminars, are held at open-air outdoor venues. REEF also has implemented increased sanitation and other measures to support healthy operations during the event. More information is at reef.org/reeffest.