Bob and Bill Meistrell were American businessmen, philanthropists, surfers, and divers Along with his business partner Bev Morgan, the Meistrells helped develop and market the first commercial neoprene wetsuit. This evolved into the Body Glove surf brand, which by 2013 was a $200 million annual enterprise and a leader in the field.

Sons of a banker who was murdered when they were four, identical twins Bob and Bill Meistrell were born in Boonville, Missouri, on July 31, 1928. The youngest of seven, Meistrell relocated to California with his family at the age of 16. Although Meistrell had not before that time even seen the ocean, he developed a fascination with it in early childhood. He and his brother taught themselves to dive in ponds in Missouri, using a bicycle pump, a garden hose and a diving helmet cobbled from household supplies.

Meistrell graduated from El Segundo High School and then entered the United States Army. In 1953, then Los Angeles County lifeguards, he and his brother invested in diver Bev Morgan’s surf shop in Redondo Beach, Dive N’ Surf. The brothers replaced Morgan’s former partner, surfboard shaper Hap Jacobs, buying in with $1,800 borrowed from their mother. 

Meistrell and his partners focused on making wetsuits more comfortable by being the first to manufacture them using neoprene. In 1959, the film Gidget helped popularize the wetsuit, and as demand rose Meistrell expanded their product line, establishing the Body Glove brand with products for surfers, divers and other water sports athletes in the mid-1960s.