Bill Booth, D-3546, took up skydiving in 1965 and became an instructor in 1967. Bill has been awarded 12 U.S. and international patents for skydiving safety systems including the hand-deploy pilot chute, 3-ring release system, and the Skyhook reserve deployment system. In 1972, he founded the Relative Workshop, later renamed United Parachute Technologies, a parachute manufacturing company now located in DeLand, FL. In the 1990s, he formed Polar Expeditions, Inc. and with his Russian partners led six parachuting expeditions through Siberia to the North Pole.