Jumpers Over Eighty Society Welcomes 200th Member

Photo above: Maury wears an inverted camera, which allowed through-the-lens viewing in freefall.

Maury poses on his 1970 Triumph motorcycle.

Chip Maury, D-865, has become the 200th member of Jumpers Over Eighty Society, a subgroup of the Parachutists Over Phorty Society. Maury began skydiving in 1960 when he was a young Navy photographer posted in Tokyo, Japan, for the Pacific edition of the “Stars and Stripes” newspaper. After covering an airborne drop for the Department of Defense newspaper while on temporary duty in Okinawa, he met a sergeant who told him about skydiving. He began skydiving training with the First Special Forces Club with the initial goal of shooting one good picture in freefall for a story on skydiving. He made his first camera jump on jump 13, but it was far from his last, and he became the young sport’s premier photographer. He felt it was an advantage to be a photographer who learned to jump rather than a jumper who learned photography.

Maury joined the Parachute Club of America (USPA’s predecessor organization) in 1963. He became a member of the original U.S. Navy Chuting Stars demonstration team and, after the Chuting Stars were disbanded, was a founding member of the U.S. Navy Leap Frogs demonstration team. While in the service, he also served temporary duty with the U.S. Army Golden Knights, the HALO Committee and the U.S. Navy Parachute Test Facility.

Maury was a member of the 1968 U.S. Parachute Team for the meet in Graz, Austria, and the October 1968 Parachutist article about the meet is filled with his photos. He was also the USPA Nationals photographer for five years.

His performed his freefall camera work using a variety of equipment. At one time, he used a wrist-mounted Nikon F camera and through-the-lens viewing. Later, he used a helmet-mounted camera with a ring sight. When the Nikon Sports Action Finder model became available, he inverted the camera on his helmet so that the viewfinder was over his right eye, allowing control of framing, lighting and backgrounds with different focal-length lenses.

After a 10-year layoff from skydiving, Maury has returned and is enjoying jumping with old friends and some new ones who were not even born when he fell in love with the sport.

More information about JOES and the other groups within POPS is available at pops-usa.com.

Cheryl Whitford | D-5164
York, Pennsylvania