Name:  Liz Wayne
Age: 65
Home: Originally from Houston, TX, but now on the Island of Roatan in Honduras

We met Liz while cruising in Honduras. 

Work:  Manager of Coco View Dive Resort

What makes her interesting?:  This grandmother of eight is anything but typical.  While others at her age and stage in life might be involved in the more familiar exploits of putting the feet up and retiring, Liz honestly revels in the hefty responsibilities required to run one of Roatan’s premier dive resorts.  Looking back on the years, she can pinpoint events and experiences that propelled her to this place, a transformation that took years to complete.  Today, she realizes the ultimate happiness you can achieve when you merge your vocation with a personal passion. 

Like a magnet.:  Life wasn’t always so exotic for Liz.  She was born in Houston and, until she dared to venture to the University of Texas in Austin, most of her existence took place within a five-mile radius of home.  She was an active girl and excelled athletically in everything from intramural baseball to volleyball and swimming. 

Upon graduating from UT with a degree in teaching English history, she returned to Houston and married her high school sweetheart.  They settled into a routine suburban lifestyle with Liz beginning her teaching career at age 21.  Two children, Marianna and Joe, came along later.  Over time, the relationship with her husband declined and they eventually divorced, but Liz remained in the Houston area. 

The city was booming. The burgeoning oil business created a wave of construction that seemed endless.  Liz married again to a man involved in construction.  It was at this point that Bill and Evelyn Evans entered her life.  They gravitated to Houston because of the opportunities in development and, through business contact with Liz’s husband, became good friends.

The Evanses loved to sail and spent a good bit of time on their boat in Seabrook, TX.  When they first invited Liz to join them, she was eight months pregnant with her daughter, Leah.  Soon after Leah was born, everything abruptly changed.  The construction boom came to a startling halt.  Bill and Evelyn disappeared from Houston.  Liz and her husband separated and divorced in 1982.

Shortly afterwards, not having heard from them in almost five years, Liz got a call from Bill.  They had bought property in Honduras, a dive resort called Coco View, and were wondering if she might have an interest in helping to run the place.  The idea was incongruous, but intriguing.  With four-year-old Leah in hand, Liz hopped on a DC-3 and came to check it out.  She was not a diver, but loved swimming.  Once she experienced snorkeling the incredibly beautiful reef within swimming distance of the resort, she determined to become certified in scuba.

From 1982 – 1988, Liz continued to teach school and visited Roatan several times, but never in an official capacity.  In 1985, when Leah was six years old, Liz took a year’s sabbatical from teaching and the two of them cruised from Block Island to Fort Lauderdale on a sailboat with friends.  Perhaps it was this experience that ripened her to accept what came next.

Evelyn called again in 1988 with a serious offer to become the assistant manager of Coco View.  Committing only to the summer, Liz accepted.  This time proved to be the real turning point in her life.  She absolutely fell in love with the place and particularly diving.  She completed her divemaster course, became an SSI instructor and worked as a divemaster until 1991.

Liz had to return to Houston once more to help with her ailing mother and give Leah the attention she needed in school.  She completed her 30 years of service to the Houston Independent School District in 1998.  With that accomplished and Leah basically grown, Liz now found herself free to explore diving as a career.  The magnet that had been planted in her heart over fifteen years before was now attracting her towards new possibilities.

A management position opened up at Laguna Beach Resort on the Honduran Island of Utila.  Liz accepted it and worked there until 2002.  In the meantime, the Evanses sold Coco View to Carl and Elizabeth Midkiff from West Virginia. 

Thinking that the opportunities in Honduras were finally winding down, Liz decided to actually retire.  She worked at a dive shop in Houston to keep herself busy and, after becoming a certified PADI instructor, taught dive classes at a local community college in Kingswood, TX. 

In 2005, Bill Evans called out of the blue.  He asked Liz cryptically if someone called her about a position in Honduras, would she be interested.  This piqued her curiosity and she told Bill to have the person contact her.  When Bill’s son Terry called with the same mysterious question, Liz confirmed that she was open to ideas.  Not to anyone’s surprise the next call was from Carl Midkiff.  He was looking for a shift in management of Coco View and she had come highly recommended by Bill Evans.

Liz signed on initially for six months just to make sure the situation was a good fit for everybody.  She’s been there ever since. 

While all of this was going on:  The entire time this story was unfolding, Liz’s main profession was teaching.  She completed her Masters in Education and Principalship from the University of Texas.  After returning from the sailing cruise in 1986, she became a homebound teaching specialist with the Houston Independent School District.  In this capacity, she would go to the homes of students who required long-term absences from school and work with them one-on-one in every subject. 

Her expertise in this field propelled her into the arena of hospital teaching.  She worked in pediatrics, burn, and psychiatric units delivering the secondary curriculum of the district to students.  She provided individualized instruction for adolescents in drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

The last ten years, Liz was associated with Odyssey House, a facility for troubled youth where the participants live and work.  They run the house, go to school, and conduct their therapy on the premises.  Liz worked closely with doctors, therapists and families to provide a sound educational base for these children.

She readily acknowledges that this was a life-growing experience for her.  She had to look at herself in the context of their troubles which offered some understanding to the challenges of her own life.

On a personal note, she also jealously guarded the time she would spend with Marianna (41) and Joe (40) in Houston with their 5 children; and Leah (29) with her 3 children in Alaska.

Putting it all together:  Out of this eclectically vital hodge-podge of experience, Liz brings many skills to her work at Coco View.  From the mundane tasks of instituting Purchase Orders and supplying the boutique (learned from her days in the Dive Shop) to the more subtle demands of human management, she draws from her past.  The staff has responded positively to her style, creating a strong team where each member stays attuned to what needs to be done, whether or not it lies within his or her purview.  The obvious winners are the guests at Coco View who receive excellent care and service. 

Liz is also a winner.  You can tell that by the ready smile, relaxed manner and utter joy with which she shares her story.

Philosophy of Life:  “Keep on living and learning.  Open up to learning from new experiences.  By all means avoid toxic people.  Seek the joy.  And when it comes to respect – teach them what you know and the respect will follow.”

O'Donnell