Gary G. Pond, born into a skydiving family and an active skydiver for decades,died Jan. 27, 2010 of cancer at his home in Orange, MA.

He was the son of Nathan G. (Nate) Pond, a member of the first full U.S. team to compete in international competition and a founding executive of Parachutes Incorporated. His mother, Nona King, was a world accuracy champion at the VI World Meet held in Orange in 1962. And his grandfather, Sebastian (Batch) Pond, an early jump pilot, provided facilities and aircraft for the first Collegiate Nationals held at the Pond family farm in Connecticut in 1957.

Gary was the last manager of the Orange Sport Parachute Center when it closed in 1983. His father was its first manager when it opened in 1959, the nation's first commercial drop zone.

Twelve years later, Gary established a new skydiving facility in his home town and called it Jumptown. It grew rapidly and in 2006, as President, Gary energized and participated actively in the construction of a new facility designed for the needs of the club.

He was active in all aspects of skydiving —as an instructor, rigger, videographer and pilot—and frequently organized formation skydives, encouraging new jumpers to participate in challenging skydives. He had logged more than 10,000 jumps.

He traveled all over the country to many drop zones and received numerous awards, medals and records over the years. Gary was also instrumental in the education of hundreds of new skydivers. He continued skydiving long into his illness. Gary worked at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation for 24 years as a plant mechanic. For many years he served as a union steward and union president. He also served on the Town of Orange Finance Committee and the Planning Board for 14 years, and was instrumental in raising funds for a new fire engine for his town.

He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Diane, his parents, two daughters and sons-in-law, and three grandchildren. Services were held in the Jumptown building—"The House that Gary Built"—on Feb. 6.