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John Sherman Obituary Published by Legacy Remembers on May 9, 2024. Skydiving Pioneer, Innovator Dies at 85 Skydiving legend John Berry Sherman (born Engle) was born February 1939 in Chicago to John E Engle, GM engineer, toolmaker and turkey farmer and Sara Jo Berry (Sherman), NBC fashion editor and radio personality. He was raised first on his father's turkey farm before moving to live with his maternal grandparents in Monterey, TN and eventually to North Attleboro, MA. He joined the Army in 1957, serving in Germany as one of the Army's first LRRPs (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) for nuclear target acquisitions. There, he made his first parachute jump in 1958. He attended Tennessee Technical University to study engineering but soon found himself engrossed in the folk music scene of Nashville, leading to a stint as a folk musician. An accomplished guitarist, John made his way out to LA in 1961, rubbing noses with budding folk artists such as David Crosby, Peter Paul & Mary, The Kingston Trio and The Smothers Brothers while living and working at a famous LA nightclub called The Troubadour. He met his first wife back in Nashville where they owned the first folk bar and venue called the Third Floor. He eventually settled down in Michigan, working as an engineer for Chrysler Corporation. He was an early advocate for the turn to front-wheel-drive based architectures including his concept for what would eventually become the K-car-based minivan that Lee Iacocca introduced in 1984, a concept for which he was forever proud. In the late 60's, he was reintroduced to skydiving and became obsessed, often leaving work on a Friday afternoon, driving overnight in his custom Dodge van to a weekend skydiving boogie to jump all weekend and hop back in his van and make it back to the office Monday morning. Tired of jumping old, retired military equipment, as was common in the day and already being an accomplished parachute rigger, he began to experiment with equipment design. John invented the first modern "piggyback" harness/container system to be issued a single-unit certification by the FAA. It was dubbed the SST (Super Swooper Tandem, based on a nickname given to John by legend of the sport Ted Strong), which later became the Racer, revolutionizing the sport. As a leader in the skydiving industry, he introduced new design concepts, such as the pull-out pilotchute, main riser covers, anti-line-strip deployment bags, Teflon cutaway cables, the anti-float bag and container concept, the first truly elliptical main parachute, first tandem system with a 3-point drogue release incorporated into the cutaway handle and countless other safety features that have been emulated by other parachute equipment manufacturers. He was a founding member of the Parachute Industry Association, served as Technical Committee Chairman of the PIA, created the first PIA electronic bulletin board system, including the popular "rec.skydiving" forum on the Internet. John was the first U.S. skydiving competitor to Medal in what was then, all of the disciplines of Speed Style, Accuracy and Relative Work, in National Competition. He was instrumental in introducing Relative Work as part of U.S. National Competition, having written the rules for the original 4-way event. He pioneered Ten-Way Speed Star techniques that are still in practice today, designed the first 3-Dimensional skydives, and was largely responsible for the successful design of the first 200 Way World Record Formation as well as many other monumental skydiving formations. John was meet director for the first Thanksgiving Day "10-Man" Meet in 1969, later the "Turkey Meet". Notably, John has been a teacher and mentor to hundreds of riggers who now serve their skydiving communities around the world. He has trained some of the most successful riggers in the world. Virtually every major U.S. manufacturer has trained under Sherman or has consulted him to improve their products and processes. 1987 he started a new company called Decel and was awarded a grant to redesign the Mid-Air Refueling "Probe and Drogue" system used by the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force. John received a U.S. Patent, for the design, which was to become the NATO standard. John lived many lives, more than most, and like a cat, survived many deaths including a car crash in 1964 where he died for six minutes, a plane crash, several parachute test-jumping incidents, a heart attack in 1990, a stroke in 2021, but ultimately met his match with a carton of milk (he loved milk) from McDonalds. John is survived by his wife Nancy, sisters Patty, Marty & Judy, daughters Margaret (Chase), Eliza Beth (James), son Johnny and grandchildren Quela & Thomas.

Truly incredible legacy. ------- What happened with the carton of milk?

3 loads went up today-I got on jet 2 and jet 3, too cool!

I know you aren't asking me, and anecdotes aren't evidence, but my anecdotal experience fwiw: bought Model 3 in Aug 2021 Initial QA: missed small paint flaw near trunk, Tesla fixed with touch up paint (did terrible job, only saving grace very hard to see spot) trunk closed with uneven sides (left higher than right, Telsa adjusted and I'm ok with it still off but hard to notice) two interior plastic parts popped off, had to be re-snapped in place Subsequent 3 years: Tweeter in A Pillar died, was replaced Charger port circuit board died so I couldn't charge, was replaced so I'm not out any $ for these issues, and I'm happy with the car, but yes initial QA is not great.

Nope. Just read enough articles about build quality concerns. tesla has a long history of blaming them on the drivers. Turns out they knew all along their parts were defective. Where I live I can't throw a rock without hitting a tesla, they are absolutely everywhere. Lots of people are happy with them it seems. But whenever I take a close look at them, I am not impressed with the quality of the actual product. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/ Tesla is in second last place in the JD Edward's reported problems per 100 vehicle category. With only Polestar performing worse. (and that is without the data from states where approval is required to approach buyers with the questionnaire, since Tesla refuses to provide such approval).

Yes, the space program that put the first people on the moon is the same as Tesla, who I guess were the first to get nerds out of their mom's basement.....same accomplishment I guess.

Expect him to go whining to SCOTUS in 3...2...1 Steve Bannon Loses Conviction Appeal, Will Go To Jail

Recidivism_Report_May_2023.pdf

This won’t go well.

That’s a heck of an obituary. I had an SST as a backup rig for awhile in 1979-1980 or so. Wendy P.

Certainly DZOs are good at having multiple corporations who own all the aspects of the business (rigging/student/aircraft) etc. I do not think that any of the real owners of the biggest dz's in the US are worried about paying for dinner this week. The Spacelands, Chicago, Arizona etc are not poor starving dzo's like some of the cessna owners might be.

mud huts maybe not, plywood and plastic sheets and no running water, absolutely:

Hi Steve, I served with him on the TSO Committee for many years. Jerry Baumchen

Hi folks, A young John Sherman: From The Parachute Manual, Jerry Baumchen

You may be overthinking this. A more likely scenario is that Musk came back after months of being at Twitter/X, talked to Tinucci, told her that he wanted her to fire about half her team, she said no, so he fired her and everyone on the team to make an example of them. That way no one else would ever try to talk back to him. No long term strategy. No tradeoffs between charging and vehicle work. Just him being the most excellent, fast-on-his-feet titan of industry the world has ever seen (in his mind.)

Within days? I can name someone who is fined for contempt, and does it again the same evening.

I think $1000 is the maximum per gaggle.

The system offers the incumbent another shot at the office. The hope is that without reelection on offer after term two they can make hard and unpopular decisions that benefit the nation as a whole. Also, the chance of the party in power staying in power is great. That is vastly different from it being a competence problem.

My memory is that you didn’t really like Trump, but felt it was more important to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House, so you voted for him. Id submit that Trump is a greater threat to how our country operates; one of the best things about the US is that we trust our succession, and that the person fills the position, not that the position is wrapped around the person. But that was threatened in 2020, and Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t intend to accept a loss this year, that he plans to pardon people who consider an invasion of the Capitol and the shenanigans that went along with it to be OK. In addition, his need for personal loyalty (rather than to the position) is very concerning. Personally, I consider this to be a significant threat to the structure of the country. Wendy P.