Dorothy Hoffner, the 104-year-old Chicagoan who set the world record as the oldest person to parachute from a plane, died Monday evening.
A spokesperson for Skydive Chicago & U.S. Parachute Association, who shared the news of her death, said they were honored the skydiving experience was able to serve as a cap to an “exciting, well-lived life.”
“Skydiving is an activity that many of us safely tuck away in our bucket lists,” the statement said. “But Dorothy reminds us that it’s never too late to take the thrill of a lifetime.”
On Oct. 1, the lifelong Chicagoan jumped from a plane at Skydive Chicago Airport in Ottawa, Illinois, about 80 miles southwest of Chicago, saying “There was nothing scary about it.”
She broke the Guinness World Record for the oldest tandem parachute jump set in 2022 by a 103-year-old in Sweden.
But Hoffner didn’t care much for the record or the focus on her age, calling it “ridiculous.”
“What has age got to do with what you’re doing?” Hoffner asked the Sun-Times a day after the jump. “I’m 104 years old, so what?”
Hoffner told reporters she might ask a 109-year-old who lives in her building to join her on her next jump, though she was not sure she’d go again.
Joe Conant met Hoffner about five years ago when he was working as a caregiver for another resident at Brookdale Senior Living.
Hoffner invited them to join her at her table for brunch, and “we were at her table for the remainder of time,” Conant told the Sun-Times.
Hoffner developed strong relationships with people at the senior living facility and referred to Conant, 62, and others around his age as her grandchildren.
“Those that were a little bit older she would call her children … and those that were my age … she would call us her grandchildren,” Conant said. “She said she loved having children and grandchildren because she did not have any in life, so now she has them. She has people she can call children and grandchildren.”
Hoffner spent her entire life in Chicago, first living in the Humboldt Park area and later in Jefferson Park, and worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Co., Conant said.
She made 25 cents an hour when she started the job. At age 104, Hoffner had spent as many years retired as she had spent working, Conant said.
Hoffner never married or had children but always had good friends in her neighborhood.
“She knew and talked about all of her neighbors growing up, all of the friends that she had,” Conant said. “Most had passed away, but she remembered everyone vividly.”
Hoffner loved having others join her for meals, and the group regularly engaged in “pretty intense trivia games,” Conant said.
Hoffner always had the answers others could not get.
It was at the dinner table, four years ago, that Conant mentioned his plans to go skydiving.
“She enthusiastically said, ‘I want to go,’ and I thought she meant she just wanted to come and watch,” Conant said. “I explained to her what it all entails, and she said, “Yeah, that sounds great. I want to try it.”
She jumped for the first time on her 100th birthday.
This spring, Hoffner told Conant she wanted to do it again.
“Let's make sure we do that again this summer, I really want to go skydiving again,” she said to him.
At first, they did not realize this would be a record-breaking jump. After Conant looked into it, he invited Guinness World Record officials to attend.
A large group joined them in Ottawa to watch Hoffner skydive, including some old neighbors from Jefferson Park.
But Hoffner was “very nonchalant about it,” Conant said.
Footage of Hoffner skydiving was picked up by outlets across the globe, and she told Conant she finally understood how the royals must have felt.
She invited every reporter who reached out to join her for dinner. For every question they asked her, she asked one right back, Conant said.
“She was so interested in others,” he said.
The day Hoffner died she had an interview scheduled with a German magazine.
Her death came as a shock to Conant and others at Brookdale. Even though she was 104, she remained active, taking her daily walk four blocks to Mariano’s and continuing to sit for interviews with interested outlets.
“She thought that her life was really uninteresting,” Conant said. “And I found her to be fascinating.”
Contributing: Landon Jones, producer for WBEZ’s Reset
