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upndownshop

Bob Chaffin in hospital

By upndownshop, in The Bonfire

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upndownshop    0

upndownshop
For those of you who know Bob Chaffin, he has had a stroke and is in the hospital. They believe he will be ok. He is having some speech problems, but they believe they can correct that. His mental state is fine and should recover well. If I understand it correctly this isnt his first stroke, Bob is 70 years old now.

Bob is one of those Pioneers of the sport, my brother and I always called him grandpa Bob. He was always more like a second father but since we didnt really have any grandparents thats what we called him, hey we were kids.:S

I hope someone can chime in and help me with some of the things he did.

I remember spending alot of time in his loft ( The Up N Down Shop) we would make Koozie can wraps, wallets, toy parachutes, and containers for our G I Joes.
Him and Dennis Dorris would watch us sometimes when our parents would need to go somewhere. They did a great job, we would sneak beers out of the fridge, but after a while we no longer had to sneak them. ;)

Bob owned APS for a while which manufactured the Rascal and Laser, he was also involved with the military in producing their vests back in the 80's I believe. He seemed to be ahead of his time on certain projects but never really had the resources to follow them through. I believe he was one of the first to combine ZP and F111 for canopies. I saw patterns for canopies with a partially closed nose long before they were common.
If you would like to send him wishes or whatever please PM me and I will give you contact for Dennis Dorris who can relay the message.
Dennis told me that he can almost understand Bob when he tries to talk, he said it wasnt much different after a bottle of Chivas sometimes.;)

Bob loved accuracy and he would have my mother lay down in the peas with her head next to the 10cm yellow disc. Mom always said "Bob if you hit me you will never win a meet again that I judge!":)
Those were the days! Prayers and vibes are appreciated for a full recovery and continued good health.

Thank you
J



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freakflyer9999    1

freakflyer9999
I didn't know Bob real well, but I remember the day he jammed/broke his thumb over at Ennis. He was jumping one of his experimental canopies and as usual the canopy didn't quite have the flare that he expected. He went swooping across the ground with his but about two inches up and ended up jamming his thumb into the dirt somewhere along the way.

Anyway tell Dennis I said hi and to pass along my get well wishes for Bob.

Kenny G.

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C348    0

C348
I started jumping at Seagoville in 1968 with Bob, Jerry, John Burke, Lupie, and many others. What a great group of people who loved the sport. I can't confirm it but I think Bob was on the first streak jump with John and 2 others in 1969. I was only jumping an old double L with a couple of blow holes that Lupie had put in for extra "drive" but I was always treated as an equal when making the manifest.

It was always a wish to get back to Dallas and jump with the DPA again but life got in the way and my jumping days ended in 1972. Sadly before the arrival of the squares but I did have a great PC and packed it in a Crossbow just like Bob jumped back in the day.

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