Lindbergh was born on August 16, 1932, five months after the kidnapping and death of his older brother, Charles Lindbergh Jr.[1] Jon's parents had discovered the name "Jon" in a book about Scandinavian history.[2][3] During his mother's pregnancy with him, his parents received large numbers of letters and phone calls threatening his life.[4] In 1935, photographers forced a car in which one of Jon's teachers was driving him home off the road in order to take pictures of him. Jon then began to be protected by a detective with a sawed-off shotgun. The Lindberghs soon decided to leave the United States and traveled to the United Kingdom.[5][6][7]
Lindbergh's father tried to teach him how to swim when he was three years old by repeatedly throwing him into the deep end of a swimming pool.[8] In spring 1940 (when he was seven), his father placed him in a pasture with a butting ram in order to learn to protect himself from it.[9] As a teenager, Lindbergh was allowed to make a solo three-day boat trip.[10] He also learned to fly before leaving for college, but his father advised him not to pursue aviation as a career.[11]
Cave diver, U.S. Navy and commercial diver
In March 1953, when Lindbergh was a marine biology student at Stanford University, he made the first successful cave dive in the United States at Bower Cave in California. The dive was part of an expedition organized by speleologistRaymond de Saussure. Lindbergh discovered a hidden chamber inside the cave, confirming Saussure's theory that the nearby swimming spa was fed from such a chamber. Lindbergh returned the next month to photograph the underwater lake from a rubber raft.[12][13] Lindbergh also took up mountain climbing and skydiving while in college. After his second year, he moved out of his dormitory into a tent in the foothills of the Coast Range.[11] As a senior at Stanford, Lindbergh took part in an expedition to Mount Shasta in California, during which Werner Hopf, a 30-year-old electronics engineer from the Stanford Research Institute, fell and was seriously injured. Hopf died despite the efforts of Lindbergh and his other companions to save him.[14]
In June–July 1964, Lindbergh participated in Edwin Link's second Man in Sea experiment, conducted in the Berry Islands (a chain in the Bahamas). Lindbergh's fellow diver for this venture was Robert Sténuit, who had become the world's first aquanaut in 1962. Sténuit and Lindbergh stayed in Link's SPID habitat (Submersible, Portable, Inflatable Dwelling) for 49 hours underwater at a depth of 432 feet, breathing a helium-oxygen mixture.[20][21][22][23][24]
Personal life
Lindbergh married Barbara Robbins on March 20, 1954, in Northfield, Illinois. They were the parents of six children, including aviator and artist Erik Lindbergh (born in 1965).[25][26][27] His second marriage was to Karen Pryor,[28][29] daughter of author Philip Wylie; they divorced in 1997. Lindbergh was married to Maura Jansen, with whom he had two daughters.[30]
When his father was dying, Lindbergh took charge of transporting him from New York City to Hawaii to die, and helped build his father's grave.[31]
^CDR W. M. Place; Col F. C. Cobb; Lt Col C. G. Defferding. "Palomares Summary Report"(PDF). osti.gov. US OSTI. p. 188. Retrieved August 4, 2021. P.188: He announced the arrival of Jon Lindbergh, of Ocean Systems, who would work with the deep sea recovery portion of the project... P.201: 2. Mr. Jon M. Lindbergh leaving the Perry Submarine (PC-3B) after a dive...
^Link, Edwin A. (April 1965). "Outpost Under the Ocean". National Geographic. 127 (4). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society: 530–533.
^Sténuit, Robert (April 1965). "The Deepest Days". National Geographic. 127 (4). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society: 534–547.
^People Staff (May 19, 1975). "Charles Lindbergh's Son Scott Raises Rare Monkeys in France". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved April 17, 2018. We didn't go to the usual type of parties. Neither of my sisters was a debutante or anything like that. We were never taught there was anything particularly remarkable about my father's flight.