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Rags began his skydiving career in September of 1973 at the Cleveland Parachute Club. In 1974 Rags moved to Atlanta and continued jumping at the Triple H Skydiving Club where he met a good friend, Mike Furry.
• 1979 – Rags, subcontracting with Furry at Django Enterprises, built his first parachute.
• 1983 – Thanksgiving Day: Rags and Furry, to avoid infringement on the direct line attachment patent, design and create the first canopy to use the innovative flares.
• 1983 to 1985 – Rags steps out on his own to run his own canopy repair business in Palatka, FL
• 1985 – Rehired by Mike and Luccia Furry to do parachute engineering work at Glide Path International.
• 1986 – Rags introduces his own unique square parachute repair technique at the Parachute Industry Association Symposium. Rags’ technique becomes widely recognized by parachute riggers worldwide, and becomes an industry standard when published by Dan Poynter in his Poynters Parachute Manual (a.k.a. – “The Riggers Bible”).
• 1988 – Rags goes to work at Performance Designs as a parachute engineer, where he is still a valuable asset today. He takes pride in his hard work ethic, being everyone’s friend, and a good listening ear.
In 2013 Rags was awarded the Parachute Industry Associations highest award. The Don Beck Memorial Achievement Award. "For achievements which have withstood the test of time". Rags was given this award for pioneering the transition from round parachutes to square parachutes. He helped develop the very first light weight square parachute, then developed the first repair and maintenance techniques then taught them to the rest of the industry elevating the industries standard and training 1000's of parachute riggers world wide.
Rags remains a veteran skydiver with several thousand jumps over his long skydiving career. He has been a pilot, tandem master, AFF instructor, a pioneer in CRW and dates himself in the world of USPA with numerous 2 digit CRW award numbers. Rags has engineered many big formation skydives, including the 400 way World Team record. Rags volunteers his efforts and knowledge to the skydiving and rigging community and has been a valuable asset and friend to the sport.
