Ocean engineer left mark on isle research, education

In 1970, John Pina Craven was among the country’s premier ocean engineers, having led successful deep-water missions to locate a missing hydrogen bomb and sunken submarines. But his love of the ocean and an offer from the late Gov. John A. Burns lured him to relocate his family to Hawaii.

In Hawaii, Craven immediately became one of the state’s top marine educators. He conceived of and led the effort to create the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, and made a serious bid for the Democratic nomination for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District seat.

Craven died Thursday at his Honolulu home due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, his family confirmed. He was 90.

Born in New York City, Craven served with the Navy aboard the battleship New Mexico in the Pacific during World War II. He graduated from Cornell University and later received a master of science degree from the California Institute of Technology, a doctorate from the University of Iowa and a law degree from George Washington University.

Craven first began working for the Navy as an applied physicist on nuclear submarine design, including the nuclear submarine Nautilus. From 1958 to 1969, he was chief scientist for the Navy’s special projects office and, from 1965 to 1969, manager of the Deep Submergence Systems Project.

During his Navy years, he developed the deep submergence rescue vehicle and was responsible for a number of other major projects, including the NR-1 nuclear-powered research submersible, Sea Labs II and III, and the Navy’s Large Object Salvage System.

To help locate submarines and other objects missing at deep ocean depths, Craven developed techniques based on his pioneering use of the Bayes theorem, a formula that computes probabilities.

In 1966, Craven led the Navy’s successful search for a hydrogen bomb missing in the Mediterranean off Spain after a B-52 bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker during midair refueling.

The bomb was recovered from a depth of 2,850 feet.

In 1968, his team located the missing sub USS Scorpion in the Atlantic Ocean.

Perhaps most famously, Craven directed a 1968 mission that discovered the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 about 1,600 miles northwest of Hawaii.

In 1974, the Howard Hughes Corp. developed the Glomar Explorer, announced publicly as a research vessel designed to look into the possibility of mining manganese nodules from the ocean floor off Hawaii. Secret U.S. documents released years later confirmed that the ship was being used by Hughes, under contract with the Central Intelligence Agency, to salvage the K-129 and its nuclear missile.

Craven, by 1975 the dean of marine programs at the University of Hawaii, refused to confirm any involvement with the salvage mission. He acknowledged to the media that he remained a consultant for top-secret Department of Defense projects.

Sarah Craven, his daughter, said even she has not been told the truth about his involvement.

"He took a lot of secrets with him," she said by telephone Saturday. "I know that, through his whole life, he was contracted by what he called ‘the agency,’" she said, referring to the CIA.

He chronicled some of his exploits in the 2001 book, "The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea."

Besides heading marine programs at UH, John Craven was picked by Burns to be the state’s marine affairs coordinator. In 1974, Craven persuaded Burns to develop the Natural Energy Lab at Keahole Point, which has served as an outdoor lab for ocean-related energy and related initiatives. Craven was NELHA’s board chairman until 1990.

He later established the Common Heritage Corp. to help develop agricultural, cooling, energy and desalinization projects — all of which shared a common dependency on cold, deep ocean water — at a demonstration facility for an environmentally sustainable habitat in Kona. His crops included eggplants and strawberries grown without soil.

In 1976, he was appointed head of the Law of the Sea Institute at the UH William S. Richardson School of Law, a position he held until 1992.

Also in 1976, he ran for Congress with the eventual backing of Gov. George Ariyoshi. He lost in the Democratic primary to Cec Heftel by 8,000 votes.

Craven taught classes at UH until 1995 and gave lectures until about five years ago, his daughter said.

A 2005 article in Wired magazine described Craven as "the mad genius from the bottom of the sea."

In Hana Hou magazine in 2008, he described himself as "the ancient mariner."

"John was a complicated gentleman — one to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude for his patient teaching and mentoring," said Charlotte Vick, a longtime colleague of Craven’s. "He chose to inhabit a remarkable world of deeper thinking and much more."

Sarah Craven said her father was always eager to teach people and encourage them to reach beyond their comfort levels.

"He loved people, and he loved engaging with them and sharing his ideas," she said.

A celebration of life will be held at 5 p.m. April 9 at Central Union Church.

Craven is survived by his wife, Dorothy Drakesmith Craven; son and daughter-in-law David John Craven and Gwyn Aubry; daughter and son-in-law Sarah Craven and Matthew McGuire; and five grandchildren.