Jacques-André Istel will receive the 2007 USPA Lifetime Achievement Award on February 14 at his Museum of History in Felicity, California, "in recognition of his pioneering spirit as he promoted skydiving in America, United States Parachute Teams, and collegiate parachuting competition while serving the United States Parachute Association and its predecessors."

Born in France in 1929, Istel left his homeland with his mother for the United States on a diplomatic passport during World War II. Istel made his first jump in 1950 using a flat-circular parachute rented from a former military paratrooper, and went on to become Executive Vice President of the National Parachute Jumpers and Riggers (NPJR), a fledgling organization of a few barn-storming parachutists, run by Joe Crane. The NPJR became the Parachute Club of America and later the USPA. As the USA’s representative to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s (FAI’s) newly formed parachuting commission’s meeting in Vienna, Austria, in 1955, he committed to bringing a team to the 3rd World Parachuting Championships in Moscow, Russia. The next year, his team, which included six other young jumpers including Lew Sanborn, D-1, placed sixth out of 10 nations competing.

He visited a parachute center in France on his way back from the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) meeting in 1955 and was introduced to the freefall and landing techniques they had mastered. It gave him the confidence to convince the U.S. Army that it should "place men silently, unobserved and accurately in enemy-held territory." Istel and Sanborn developed a curriculum that would teach those techniques to soldiers, and their efforts became the impetus for the forming what became the U.S. Army Parachute Team.

In 1965, after Istel served as President of the IPC, the FAI named him Honorary President by saying, "He was the only person to have held every major position in parachuting: parachute designer, innovator of training methods, instructor conference leader, national champion, world record holder, team captain, team coach, team leader, leader of delegation, IPC delegate, president of national association, president of world championships, and president of IPC." In his skydiving career, he earned license numbers B-17, C-28 and D-2. Says Istel, "Lew Sanborn thought I should have [D-] number one, but his first jump was before mine and I believed then, and still do, that no one is more deserving of D-1."

Istel made his last jump on July 10, 1973, when he flew in with the Bahamian national flag on Independence Day, the island country’s actual first day of independence. His parachute, a Para-Commander, was designed in the Bahamian national colors. Jumping from a four-place Cessna, Chuck Embury was the second jumper and Bill Booth was third.