I received word yesterday that Dewey Hunt, a longtime skydiver in the Seattle area, has died from cancer. When I first started jumping at Blue Skies Skydiving in Shelton, WA in the mid 90’s Dewey was one of the core instructors there. He was part of the team that taught me to jump through static line progression. He was a great skydiver, teacher, coach and friend. His interest in CRW took me to the dark side and some of the best years of my life grabbing nylon and building formations. In 1996 he and some of the other instructors talked PD into sending a dozen CRW canopies to the DZ for two weekends and also talked Team Infinity into providing one-on-one instruction. It was a magical time. Blue Skies was a very special place to skydive and Dewey was always there, encouraging those of us that were struggling.
My best memory of Dewey was a 3-way rotation jump with him and his log time CRW Dog partner Walt Yoho. I hated rotes, but needed to learn. On that particular jump I came off the top, grabbed WAY too much front risers and threaded the needle between Dewey on the bottom and his canopy, hopelessly entangling us and our canopies. We had wrapped before and had always gotten out of it, but this one was WAY different. Walt wisely got out of the way as Dewey and I spun faster, banging against each other harder and harder. I looked at him and said, "Dewey, we ain't gettin' out of this one." I saw him smile and reach for silver. We both chopped and landed safely. We also spent the rest of the day trying to get my canopy out of a 120' tall tree, smiling and laughing the entire time. He was a great skydiver, family man and friend. I lost touch with him when I moved down to Perris. I'll be seeing him again at his memorial. I hope they wrapped him in nylon when they packed him away. He would have liked that....
Re: [JakGramley] Long time NW skydiver passes
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Dewey was truly one of the kindest people I have ever known. He was one of the "rocks" of the Blue Skies family and helped out whenever we needed him, whether it was teaching other jumpers, doing tandems or running manifest. I will really miss him. Thanks for everything Dewey. Good bye for now until we meet again one day.
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I have been traveling and just saw this post. Dewey was a fantastic person and I am very saddened to hear of his passing. He and his family will be in my thoughts...
Re: [JakGramley] Long time NW skydiver passes
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Jack, I just saw this post.
Mike Turso sent me a message about Dewey. We have lost so many from that small little dz tucked away in Shelton. Tommy, Dewey, Walt, Angie, Bob. No matter how long ago those Blueskies days were, it always seems like yesterday doesnt it?
