Class News

Sam Low ’64 reminisces about skydiving

February 1, 2020

Tony Lavely reports:

Sam Low was reminiscing about his skydiving exploits with Bill Lear and Sandy Wightman at the Orange Skydiving Center in Massachusetts.  So, of course, I had to show him photos of my jump from 18,000 feet over Cape Canaveral in 2007. 

Sam emailed: “Back in the sixties, they told you what to do and pushed you out the door alone.  I don't know what your experience was, but these days most of the time you jump out with someone else doing all the work. It certainly was pretty exciting to reach terminal velocity and feel like you were just floating in air all alone. There are some nice stories around all that jump that we did together.”

I replied: “I jumped out over Cape Canaveral from 18,000 feet in 2007 with a guy strapped to my back and his wife taking video of us. You gotta trust a husband/wife team in the air, right?  The only thing that made it unique was that my son, daughter (it was her birthday, so I sang on the way down), and wife were in the air with me. I want to do it again (maybe strapped to you) on my 80th, like Bush.”

Sam: “Holy shit, Tony, the whole family in the air at one time from 18,000 feet? What a trip! I'm sure we jumped from a much lower altitude, maybe five thousand feet. Are you sure it was 18,000 feet?  I sure do remember that sensation of just floating and just looking around and seeing the world from that height. We had such a good time on the first jump that we went again immediately. I have to admit I've not jumped since.”