Med School Ex-Paratrooper Wins First American Collegiate Meet

WOODBURY, Conn., May 4--The country's first intercollegiate parachute jumping competition, held today stop the windswept crest of The Good Hill Farm, was won by Harvard's British-born R.C.A. Weatherly-White.

Flying 2,200 feet above the 50-yard target area, at a clip of 80 m.p.h., Weatherly-White dropped to the ground a mere 9 ft., 3 1/2 in. from the target center, amid the cheers of almost 1,000 spectators, who were held back by U.S. Marine Corps guards, in dress uniform, and officers of the Connecticut State Police.

Briefing in Farmhouse

Competitors and members of the press attended an eleventh hour briefing session in a small farmhouse, a quarter of a mile from the hill farm's landing field. The briefing, and the entire afternoon was dominated by Marine Captain Jacques Andre Istel, iron-willed director of the meet, and captain of the United States parachuting team which competed at the World Championship held in Moscow last year.

The first thrill of the afternoon came when Dartmouth freshman Charlie Hotchkiss, who was making only the ninth jump of his career, landed 39 ft., 9 in. from the target center. Hotchkiss used a Derry Steerable chute, which allows more control over horizontal movement than the chute used by Weatherly-White.

Weatherly-White, who showed up at the meet wearing a black derby, checkered suit, and crimson vest, and changed into a white siren suit for the jump, received his training as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He is a third-year Medical School student and, with David B. Burnham '57, is co-captain of the Cambridge Parachuting Club.

Burnham and White began the club several months ago, as the first fully organized college-membered parachuting organization in the country. There are indications that similar clubs are being formed at Princeton and Williams.

All the jumpers at the meet have practiced only on an informal basis this spring, except for the Cambridge Parachuting Club representatives.