82-Year-Old Man Jumps to Commemorate 100-year-old Feat

When Capt. Albert Berry  for the first time in 1912, both the base commander and the man who designed the airplane just missed the feat.

One hundred years later, when more than 600 people gathered at Thursday to re-create history, history was re-created a little too much when most of the crowd missed the landing.

Before the jump, the crowd gathered for a ceremony that told the history of the event.

At the old military base, Berry jumped out of a plane piloted by Anthony Jannus and designed by Thomas Benoist.

“You had real innovators and you had real pioneers and by bringing the three of these together, you brought together what it took as a team to have the first successful jump,” said Art Schuermann of the Jefferson Barracks Historic Preservation Office.

After two cancellations due to weather, the plane flew from Kinloch Field to Jefferson Barracks where Berry jumped from 1,500 feet. 

“It was beautiful out there,” said Lew Sanborn, who made the commemorative jump 100 years later. 

But Imperial resident Sanborn wasn’t jumping for the masses; he was jumping for 41st President, George H. W. Bush.

For the parachutist, this was jump number 7,341. He wanted to dedicate the jump to Bush, who has leapt on both his 80th and 85th birthdays.

“He did more in one jump on his 80th birthday for parachuting than my 65 years of jumping,” Sanborn said.

Sanborn, 82, said he will keep jumping as long as his mind and body allows him.

“I’m glad I can still do it and I wish more people could do it,” he said, adding that too many people shut down when they reach 50 or 60 years old.

County Executive Charlie Dooley was on hand to officially name March 1 as Redefining Gravity Through Innovation Day in St. Louis County.