Pioneering NYPD scuba diver who lived in Kendall is honored by Dade officers
Walter Mylett might have been a dedicated police officer, but his first love was diving into murky waters in search of elusive objects, including dead bodies.
Mylett brought such a passion to that pursuit that he pioneered the first scuba-diving squad in the New York Police Department in 1956.
On Friday, Mylett, 92, who died this month after living in Kendall, was honored by the Miami-Dade Police Department and other local officers at a memorial service that highlighted his long law-enwho forcement career as New York’s first scuba diver.
“He loved being on the water,” said Chris Mylett, of Kendall, one of Mylett’s seven sons, including five who also became police officers.
According to a 2016 profile in the New York Daily News, Mylett had been a beat cop for a couple of years when he saw the opportunity to start the underwater recovery unit in the New York Police Department. Mylett, who considered legendary French underseas explorer Jacques Cousteau his hero, became a natural leader for the squad.
“Supervisors liked that I was a nautical man,” said Mylett, a Brooklyn native fell in love with the water on his childhood sailboat on Sheepshead
Bay, where he would go diving for nickels and dimes.
He told the Daily News that the police scuba-diving unit mainly searched for dead bodies in New York’s waterways — a significant improvement over using crude grappling hooks. “We got all the bodies we ever went after,” he recalled. “Some bosses would say, ‘We’re not going to send a live one down for a dead one.’ I talked them into it.”
He said family members always appreciated whenever the divers could find the missing body of a loved one. “It meant so much to a family, to bury their sons or daughters,” said Mylett. “What I brought was complete closure. It made my whole life worth it.”
After his retirement from the New York police force in 1976, Mylett went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in music and two master’s degrees in religion and liberal arts, fulfilling his conviction that “education is life itself,” according to his son Chris.
“Today we speak a lot about work-life balance, but like most cops, for Walter it was a work-life blend,” Chris said of his father. “Even in retirement he was often called on to assist in recovery efforts for drowning victims.”
Another son, Thomas Mylett, who retired from
Corpus Christi Police Department as a lieutenant and became chief of police at Port of Corpus Christi, said his father’s credo was “at your service.”
“He always told us never forget that whoever you deal with, that person is someone’s father, mother, brother or sister and should be treated with the dignity your own family should be treated.”
Mylett, whose Miami memorial service was held at the Van Orsdel Midtown Miami Chapel, is survived by his seven sons, 20 grandchildren, 17 greatgrandchildren, and his sister, Rosalie Doherty. He is predeceased by his wife, Anita, and his parents, Elwood and Grace. A memorial service will be planned in New York for family and friends this summer.