Hall of Fame Inductees Selected

The Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame’s board of trustees has selected a distinguished group of skydiving greats to join the ranks of those already inducted into the Hall of Fame. At the Celebration Weekend 10-12 October 2014, Gerald “Jerry” Bourquin, Dan “BC” Brodsky-Chenfeld, Norm Heaton, Chris Needels, and Helmut Schlecht will become the class of 2014. All in the skydiving community are invited to attend and show their appreciation for all these leaders have done for our sport.

Jerry Bourquin, D-22 and Gold Wings #2, joined the US Army in 1951 and served in the Korean War before earning his airborne jump wings in 1957. Jerry was a STRAC Team member 1960-61, which became the US Army Parachute Team with Jerry as one of its first members. During his time on the team, he was the Competition Team Leader and served as a competitor on the US Style & Accuracy Teams in 1961 through 1964. He was National Style Champion in 1964, second overall twice (1962 & 1964), and the 1965 All Services Champion. Still an active jumper, Jerry is now Jumpers Over Eighty Society #96 and lives with his wife, Geri, in Goodyear, Arizona.”

Dan BC, as he’s known, helped form the world-class four-way formation skydiving team, Arizona Airspeed 20 years ago and earned several national and international awards before assuming the reins of Skydive Perris’ drop zone manager in California. Author, motivational speaker, skydiving coach and world champion, Dan has led and inspired many in our sport to become much more than they ever thought they could be.

Norman Heaton served as the Parachute Club of America’s/USPA’s executive director for 11 years until the organization moved from Monterey, California, to Washington, DC, in the mid-1970s. In 1981, Norman was honored with USPA’s highest non-competitive, the Lifetime Achievement Award, for contributing “substantially and uniquely to USPA’s greatest growth.” Now living with his wife, Betty, in Oklahoma, he remains involved with the sport’s activities as a USPA Executive Director Emeritus.

USPA hired Chris Needels as its executive director in 1994 shortly after retiring from George H.W. Bush’s white house staff. Having served on USPA’s board as a national director from 1975 through 1980, he was commander of the US Army Parachute Team at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It’s impossible to quantify Chris’ contributions to our sport and his accomplishments will last long into the next generation. A very active member of the skydiving community, Chris is vice-president of the Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame and lives with his wife Conny in eastern Virginia.

Since 1968 Helmut Schlecht, with outstanding success, represented Germany as a competitor and team leader in World Championships, international competitions and National Championships in Germany until his retirement from the Army. In 1976, the U.S. Army Parachute Team recognized Helmut as an Honorary Golden Knight and not long after, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, in recognition of Helmut’s outstanding services for the sport and his home country, honored Helmut with the Federal Cross of Merit. Because of his team’s partnership with the U.S. Army Parachute Team, Helmut was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of the United States of America in 1993. The Fédération Aéronautique International (FAI) honored the exceptional achievements of Helmut for sport parachuting by awarding him the Gold Parachuting Medal. His home is in Bavaria, Germany, with his wife Renate.