Woman, 104, dies days after setting world record as oldest skydiver | US News

A 104-year-old woman died peacefully in her sleep – days after breaking the world record for oldest person to skydive.

Dorothy Hoffner hopped from a plane at Skydive Chicago Airport on October 1 and broke the Guinness World Record for oldest tandem parachute jump set by a 103-year-old Swedish woman last year.

‘There was nothing scary about it,’ Hoffner told the Chicago Sun-Times after landing in Ottawa, about 80 miles southwest of Chicago.

‘It was nice, peaceful.’

On Monday morning, Hoffner was found dead at the Brookdale Lake View senior living community by staff, her friend Joe Conant said. She is believed to have died on Sunday night.

A spokesperson for the Skydive Chicago & US Parachute Association told the newspaper they were honored that Hoffner’s last dive wrapped up her ‘exciting, well-lived life’.

‘Skydiving is an activity that many of us safely tuck away in our bucket lists,’ stated the spokesperson. ‘But Dorothy reminds us that it’s never too late to take the thrill of a lifetime.’

Hoffner did not see her age stopping her from breaking the world record – which she did not make a big deal of.

‘What has age got to do with what you’re doing?’ the Chicago native told the Sun-Times afterward the 13,400-foot tandem jump. ‘I’m 104 years old, so what?’

Hoffner was ‘indefatigable’, said Conant, who met her while caring for another resident at the same senior living center.

‘She just kept going,’ Conant said Tuesday. ‘She was not someone who would take naps in the afternoon, or not show up for any function, dinner or anything else. She was always there, fully present. She kept going, always.’

Conant is going through paperwork to ensure that Hoffner is recognized as the world’s oldest skydiver by Guinness World Records.

‘She had no intention of breaking the record. And she had no interest in any publicity or anything,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t doing it for any other reason than she wanted to go skydiving.’

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