Jon Lindbergh | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jon Morrow Lindbergh (1932-08-16)August 16, 1932[1] New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 29, 2021(2021-07-29) (aged 88) Lewisburg, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Stanford University University of California, San Diego |
| Occupation(s) | U.S. NavyUnderwater Demolition Team,commercial diver,aquanaut |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 8; includingErik |
| Parent(s) | Charles Lindbergh Anne Morrow Lindbergh |
Jon Morrow Lindbergh (August 16, 1932 – July 29, 2021) was an Americanunderwater diver. He worked as aUnited States Navy demolition expert and as acommercial diver, and was one of the world's earliestaquanauts in the 1960s. He was also a pioneer incave diving, and one of the children of aviatorsCharles Lindbergh andAnne Morrow Lindbergh.
Lindbergh was born on August 16, 1932, five months after thekidnapping and death of his older brother, Charles Lindbergh Jr.[1] Jon's parents had discovered the name "Jon" in a book about Scandinavian history.[2][3] During his mother's pregnancy with him, his parents received large numbers of letters and phone calls threatening his life.[4] In 1935, photographers forced a car in which one of Jon's teachers was driving him home off the road in order to take pictures of him. Jon then began to be protected by a detective with a sawed-off shotgun. The Lindberghs soon decided to leave the United States and traveled to the United Kingdom.[5][6][7]
Lindbergh's father tried to teach him how to swim when he was three years old by repeatedly throwing him into the deep end of a swimming pool.[8] In spring 1940 (when he was seven), his father placed him in a pasture with a butting ram in order to learn to protect himself from it.[9] As a teenager, Lindbergh was allowed to make a solo three-day boat trip.[10] He also learned to fly before leaving for college, but his father advised him not to pursue aviation as a career.[11]
In March 1953, when Lindbergh was amarine biology student atStanford University, he made the first successful cave dive in the United States atBower Cave in California. The dive was part of an expedition organized byspeleologistRaymond de Saussure. Lindbergh discovered a hidden chamber inside the cave, confirming Saussure's theory that the nearby swimming spa was fed from such a chamber. Lindbergh returned the next month to photograph the underwater lake from a rubber raft.[12][13] Lindbergh also took up mountain climbing and skydiving while in college. After his second year, he moved out of his dormitory into a tent in the foothills of theCoast Range.[11] As a senior at Stanford, Lindbergh took part in an expedition toMount Shasta in California, during which Werner Hopf, a 30-year-old electronics engineer from theStanford Research Institute, fell and was seriously injured. Hopf died despite the efforts of Lindbergh and his other companions to save him.[14]
Lindbergh graduated from Stanford, where he had been a member of theNavy ROTC, and did postgraduate work at theUniversity of California, San Diego. He served for three years as afrogman with theUnited States NavyUnderwater Demolition Team (UDT), reaching the rank ofLieutenant.[10][11][15] He then became acommercial diver, working forOffshore Divers, Inc. inSanta Barbara, California, and making dives from offshoreoil rigs on theWest Coast of the United States at depths between 230 and 400 feet.[16]
In 1966, as part of a team from Ocean Systems, Inc., Jon Lindbergh participated in the recovery efforts whena hydrogen bomb was lost off the coast of Spain.[17][18][19]
In June–July 1964, Lindbergh participated inEdwin Link's second Man in Sea experiment, conducted in theBerry Islands (a chain in theBahamas). Lindbergh's fellow diver for this venture wasRobert Sténuit, who had become the world's firstaquanaut in 1962. Sténuit and Lindbergh stayed in Link's SPIDhabitat (Submersible, Portable, Inflatable Dwelling) for 49 hours underwater at a depth of 432 feet, breathing a helium-oxygen mixture.[20][21][22][23][24]
Lindbergh married Barbara Robbins on March 20, 1954, inNorthfield, Illinois. They were the parents of six children, including aviator and artistErik Lindbergh (born in 1965).[25][26][27] His second marriage was toKaren Pryor,[28][29] daughter of authorPhilip Wylie; they divorced in 1997. Lindbergh was married to Maura Jansen, with whom he had two daughters.[30]
When his father was dying, Lindbergh took charge of transporting him from New York City toHawaii to die, and helped build his father's grave.[31]
Lindbergh's elder brother,Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the first of six children born to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, died in 1932 in theinfamous kidnapping — what many termed at the time "the crime of the century".[32] Jon's other Lindbergh siblings are: Land Morrow Lindbergh (born 1937), writerAnne Spencer Lindbergh (1940–1993),conservationist Scott Lindbergh (born 1942),[33] and writerReeve Lindbergh (born 1945).
He died fromrenal cancer inLewisburg, West Virginia, on July 29, 2021, at the age of 88.[34][30]
The sub is piloted by the son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.
P.188: He announced the arrival of Jon Lindbergh, of Ocean Systems, who would work with the deep sea recovery portion of the project... P.201: 2. Mr. Jon M. Lindbergh leaving the Perry Submarine (PC-3B) after a dive...
We didn't go to the usual type of parties. Neither of my sisters was a debutante or anything like that. We were never taught there was anything particularly remarkable about my father's flight.
