Ralph White

[javelin1 0]

I just read that Ralph White, a very early skydiving photographer, just died .According to the Associated Press , he also filmed the wreck of the Titanic over 30 times, was a cameraman for the TV series RIPCORD and ran a skydiving school in Lancaster c California in the 60's

[howardwhite 6]

LOS ANGELES—Ralph Bradshaw White, whose film footage of the Titanic provided the world with its first look at the underwater wreckage of the sunken ship, has died.
White died Feb. 4 from complications of an aortic aneurysm at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, his daughter Krista Few told the Los Angeles Times. He was 66.
The explorer and documentary cameraman was a member of the French-American expedition that discovered the remains of the Titanic in 1985.
White returned to the site more than 30 times to film and recover artifacts from the ship's wreckage. He boasted that he spent more time on the Titanic than its captain had.
"There's something truly magical about her lying down there, still beckoning after all these years," White told USA Today in 2000. "But I don't really know why the Titanic has such an allure for me. Does anyone ever understand why they fall in love?"
Footage he captured of the ship appeared in James Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winning film "Titanic" and in the early 1990s IMAX documentary "Titanica."
The footage was filmed using deep-ocean imaging technology, powerful lighting systems and deep-diving submersibles that allowed White's cameras to penetrate the darkness 12,000 feet below the ocean's surface, where the doomed oceanliner came to rest.
As a contract cameraman for National Geographic, White also searched for the Loch Ness monster, filmed wild horses, whales and sharks and filmed the 153-year-old wreck of the Breadalbane under the Arctic ice cap.
"I was born an adult in search of a childhood," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1998. "And I have been very successful at that."
White was born Aug. 28, 1941, in San Bernardino and grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii. He learned to parachute as a Marine Corpsman and served with a reconnaissance unit in Vietnam.
He opened a parachuting school in Lancaster after his discharge from the Marines in 1966 and went on to work as a free-fall cameraman for the TV show Ripcord.
White is survived by Few, his son Randy Pixley of Atlanta and his fiance Rosaly Lopes.
A memorial service was held Tuesday.

[JerryBaumchen 1,468]

Ralph did a lot of photography work at the old Lancaster dz. Mjosparky has posted a number of his photos on this website of Ken Rounds unpacking over Lancaster. Ralph also shot the 3-photo series of Ken unpacking a chest pack at terminal that appeared in Skydiver magazine in the summer of '64.

Quite a number of years ago Ralph donated all of his skydiving photos to USPA for their museum.

JerryBaumchen

[sprtdth 0]

Sorry to hear that. I knew Ralph from Taft in the early-mid 70's.
His was the first (and only) camera helmet I ever jumped. He wanted a film of him and a friend (female) doing a 2 way. I started climbing out to hang off the strut with about 200lbs of batteries and a 30lb camera on my head, and I looked at him and asked "Do I want to do this", he just grinned and said "I'll be fine". Off we went.

CRW Skies
Frank
CRW Diva #58

[rapter 0]

Quote

and ran a skydiving school in Lancaster c California in the 60's

The Dz at Fox feild was the first place I ever seen skydivers, my Dad had a C-140 there. I did get to make a few jumps at a couple of airshows at Fox Feild in the 90s,
I would love to hear a few stories about the Lancaster DZ. I know Billy Reed jumped there, He's one of my heros.

Only the good die young, so I have found immortality,

[33zulu 22]

Quote

White died Feb. 4 from complications of an aortic aneurysm at Glendale Adventist Medical Center

Good follow up story on Ralph in today's L.A. Times and the global travels of his ashes.

http://tiny.cc/srTeM

[howardwhite 6]

http://tiny.cc/srTeM
Interesting that he worked with James Cameron, who has a new film out some of you might have heard of.

HW