howardwhite 5 #1 December 1, 2007 Vic Deveau, D-529, has left us. "The Silver Fox" died of cancer Nov. 20 in Connecticut. He was a long-time regular Nationals competitor in style and accuracy, and also a pioneer in RW. He was a Marine. And he loved a good party. One well-known long time fellow Nationals competitor shared with me two Vic memories: "His Tee shirt that we wore at Nationals long ago in Tahlequah, OK. 'Take my love and shove it up your heart.' "His conversation with a young 15 year old upstart that wasn’t learning about life very fast. Vic told him: 'We’re both adults, I just have more time in grade than you do.'” Vic put me out on jump #21 in Orange, MA in March, 1966, in one of his on-and-off stints as a Parachutes, Inc., instructor. (It was only a five-second delay, but I managed to pull on my back) When I told Jacques Istel this summer about Vic's illness, he recalled, "Ah, yes, I fired him five times." One firing came in the late sixties, when Vic's picture appeared on the inside rear cover of Life Magazine, in freefall over Orange and identified as a Parachutes Inc. instructor. He had a broken leg and was jumping wearing a very obvious cast. But Vic's longest affiliation was with Connecticut Parachutists Inc. (CPI); he was one of its earliest members and its president in 1972. Vic made his "retirement jump" at CPI in October, 2006. Pictures by pilotdave are at http://www.skydivingstills.com/keyword/vic#103752944 The funeral home guest book is at http://www.legacy.com/JournalInquirer/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=98491803&PageNo=1 I've attached a couple of pictures I took of Vic in the late sixties, one of him in freefall over Orange, another of him about to board a Norseman with "the incredible packing machine," Pete Peterson. Ironic coincidence: the December '07 Parachutist, "This month in History" (p. 21) notes that in December, 1967, Vic and Bill Ottley, both lifetime USPA members, received their Gold Wings, and Vic received his Quadra Diamond award in 1998. I expect others here will share fond memories of him. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JerryBaumchen 1,068 #2 December 1, 2007 Hi howard, Quote Vic Deveau, D-529, has left us. We'll all leave one day! I understood that he had been a POW in Viet Nam for quite some time, any truth to that? JerryBaumchen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skr 1 #3 December 2, 2007 Hey, Howard, thanks for telling me about Vic. It seems so long ago. I don't know how he got my name, maybe through PCA, but he showed up one day in 1963 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Actually it was the day before my master's orals. So I stayed up most of the night drinking beer and listening to jump stories - Hey, are you a math major or a skydiver? Was there ever any question :-) :-) Until then it was just me and another guy, Dennis Quinn, jumping around Raleigh. I had just over 100 jumps but Vic had about 350, and a D license, *and* he was the first person I had met from The-Outside-World. Well, actually I had also met a guy named Squeak Charette when I went down to Ft Bragg to get somebody official to sign off my C license. About 3 seconds after my orals the next day we drove off to some little airport and made some jumps. I don't remember how we talked somebody into taking us up and letting us jump out, but we went there for the next 2 or 3 days, and then he left. Next year, 1964, we ran into each other again at the Professional Meet in Las Vegas and he came over to Los Angeles for a few days after that. I was still theoretically in graduate school, but you know ... So we went down to Oceanside in the middle of the week. It was just the two of us since Oceanside was a weekend dropzone, but Jack Zahnizer, the owner agreed to fly the 180 for us. Unfortunately there were clouds at 2,000 ft, so there was only time for one quick hookup and then separate and pull on each jump. But to add flavor to the day we rigged Vic's rig up with a static line on one jump, with the other end hooked to one of my D-rings, and then climbed out on the strut together and jumped off. And then he left and drove straight through, nonstop from Los Angeles to Connecticut. We ran into each other several other times over the years. I learned a lot from him. > "Ah, yes, I fired him five times." :-) :-) Yes, I think Vic was a good influence on a lot of people. Skr Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piper17 1 #4 December 3, 2007 No truth whatsoever."A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wdy_bnckr 0 #5 December 4, 2007 I remember Vic from some of the National meets ( Orange '65, Plattsburg '70, and several of the Tahlequah Meets. He always drew a big crowd after jumping was over and the partying started. I always wondered what was truth and what was embelishment . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skr 1 #6 December 4, 2007 > wdy_bnckr Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. I remember Plattsburg too, it was my 8th and final tree landing. > what was truth and what was embelishment I don't know either, but after being around him a number of times I tended to believe the stories because even in their stretched versions they sounded like the kind of thing he might do. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wdy_bnckr 0 #7 December 4, 2007 Glad to see you're doing well! I get to learn alot about the 'old days' and see who is still around...Woody Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites