Pat Dollard

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Fay Observer

Dr. Winston Tornow smiled as he emerged from the car Sunday morning at PK Air Park in Raeford. He also smiled through the video warnings about what could happen during a tandem parachute jump.

And when the 95-year-old World War II veteran landed safely after taking his first jump from an airplane, he smiled some more.

“It was lovely,” he said. “There’s really nothing to it.”

Tornow, a retired veterinarian from Laurinburg, never felt nervous and never felt scared falling 12,500 feet at the Raeford Parachute Center School.

Life is to be lived, after all. Death isn’t under our control.

“I figure when the good Lord wants you, He’ll take you,” said Tornow.

But Tornow had other reasons to feel secure, as well. His tandem partner and instructor was Mike Elliott, a retired soldier and former member of the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army Parachute Team.

As a Golden Knight, Elliott also had escorted former President George H.W. Bush.

Tornow made the decision to jump after his wife, Martha Jane McNair died last year. Their son, McNair Tornow of Beach Mountain, set it up.

“We’re excited about it,” McNair Tornow said.

But he wasn’t speaking for his sisters, Jane Ellen Tornow of Chapel Hill, and Elizabeth Skeadas of Savannah.

“I’m very nervous,” Skeadas said. “These guys think it’s great.”

Jane Ellen Tornow echoed her sister’s concerns.

“He’s too calm,” she said about her father.

But for Winston Tornow, a man who smiles often and offers compliments and conversation to everyone he meets, the jump was nothing to be feared.

It was just one more exhilarating possibility life had to offer.

“He’s just a remarkable guy,” said Frances Willis, a former neighbor of Tornow’s and one of the 12 or so friends and family who had gathered at the air park to cheer him on. “He has such a zest for life and living and always wants to push the envelope.”

During his life, Tornow has traveled to more than 30 countries.

Years of exercise, a healthy diet and a grateful attitude have kept him fit and medication free.

“Life is a ball,” he said before Sunday’s jump. “Realize each moment you have is a gift. Just don’t hurt anybody’s feelings.”