Columbus Skydivers, Darbydale, Ohio

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After read the older posts about the Columbus Skydivers I want to add information about them. I joined Columbus Skydivers on August 18, 1965 when they were at Harrisburg-Georgesville Rd in Darbydale, Ohio. I just came across my receipt signed by Rudy D. Samples for my membership fee of $15 which was in-between the pages of Dec 64 SkyDiver magazine. When you were at the site parking lot looking at the DZ the club house was to the left, looking past the DZ and runway through the tree line was the Big Darby Creek. The club planes were a blue/green Howard and a Cessna 182, which crashed one day in a field on the Samuel Kiehl farm at the intersection of I-71 and Harrisburg-Georgesville Rd when it was flown by Paul Bryant.
I remember some of the people at the club, Rudy Samples, John Simpkins, Mert Offet and Larry Purtee. There was another Larry who got the nick name Low Pull Larry when he pulled so low that his chute opened just above the trees to the left of the club house and was knocked out when he landed. Larry Purtee was the blond guy with the scar on the chin and drove the red 60 Corvette with a cracked fender and traded it for a new green 65 convertible.
One of the earlier posts talked about it being a group that liked to party and that was true. I remember a large group of us being kicked out of bars for being rowdy drinking Flaming Hookers that included the females that were with us who were also tossing down the drinks. I had become good friends with Larry Purtee and during the winter of 65 Mert, Larry and I went on the snow covered I-71 to Mansfield in Mert’s car sliding along the interstate to go skiing and party, I don’t remember the skiing just the partying. There were other events that I have first hand knowledge of which may have added to the stories about the club being a rowdy group.
It was late 65 or the first half of 66, because I went into the Army summer of 66, when I helped Larry Purtee and John Simpkins when they set a Guinness Book record of 89 jumps in 8 hrs and 49 minutes using 7 TU chutes. Rudy was flying the plane and would stand it on its nose as soon as Larry and John exited beating them to the ground. Larry and John would drop their chutes where they landed and hustle to the plane where people were waiting with packed chutes while their used chutes were picked up and packed for another jump. There was an official observer from Guinness recording the event. Unfortunately for Larry his glory days were short lived, I was in Special Forces training at Fort Bragg in 67 when I was told about the plane crash involving Larry. He died as a result of the crash. He had purchased a used Cessna and was flying it with a passenger, he survived the crash loosing sight in his left eye, the passenger was paralyzed. Less than 2 weeks after the crash Larry had a blood clot that caused his death. I could not get leave to go to his funeral and when I got out of the Army I did not go back to living in Columbus or go near Darbydale just headed west ending up in Hawaii.