Obituaries : Ralph Wiggins, 81, Aerial Acrobat and Parachutist

Ralph Curtis Wiggins, an aircraft mechanic who spent his spare time high above the Earth as a parachutist and aerial acrobat at air shows, county fairs and in the movies, has died. He was 81.

A Sunland resident for 50 years, Wiggins died at home Thursday of cancer, said his wife, Grace.

In 1937 Wiggins, then 25, made his first parachute jump--on a dare, his wife recalled. He spent Sundays at a Monrovia airport watching the facility’s regular jumper and agreed to take the man’s place one day when the jumper failed to show up.

Later hired by Lockheed as a mechanic, Wiggins devoted many weekends to parachuting. On a jump in 1939, he met his future wife, who was also out for a sky-dive that day.

Wiggins became an accomplished parachutist and performed for many years at air shows and county fairs both as a sky-diver and later as an aerial acrobat. His hair-raising stunts would involve vintage airplanes, helicopters and hot-air balloons.

His skills eventually attracted Hollywood notice and he was tapped to provide the aerial stunt work for Billy Wilder’s 1957 biography of Charles Lindbergh “The Spirit of St. Louis.” He was later featured in a commercial for a hair preparation walking the wings of a biplane, his wife said.

In his 60s, he performed his first plane-to-plane transfer for the 1975 movie “The Great Waldo Pepper,” starring Robert Redford.

He retired from Lockheed in 1973 but continued parachuting, making his last jump in 1991 on his 79th birthday. His wife estimated that he completed more than 600 jumps in his lifetime.

“He was one of the old-timers of parachuting,” she said Friday. “He was a good one.”

In addition to his wife, Wiggins is survived by a daughter, Patricia, of Santa Rosa.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Ferrara & Callahan Mortuary, 8727 Fenwick St. in Sunland.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Verdugo Hills Visiting Nurse Assn., 1101 E. Broadway, Suite 201, Glendale, 91205.