The freefall lasted barely 30 seconds, but it was enough to make 103-year-old Kathryn “Kitty” Hodges the oldest tandem skydiver in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“It was great,” Hodges said of the experience last August, when she jumped out of a plane 10,000 feet over Snohomish County, just north of Seattle, Washington. “I’m going to do it again.” Her courage inspired three fellow residents from Bayview Retirement Community in Seattle to also take the plunge.
Hodges has been an influential force throughout her lifetime. From 1940 to 1944, she was the only faculty member teaching art at then-Seattle Pacific College. With the help of librarian Margaret Bursell, Hodges arranged to have the Seattle Art Museum loan paintings from their collection to display at the college each week, including the works of Michelangelo, Van Gogh, and Dürer.
View Hodge’s tandem skydiving jump at spu.edu/kittyhodges.
Photos by Tina Chang
