The Coronado Historical Association invites you to the next installment of our Wine & Lecture series:

Skydiving Entrepreneur H. “Skippy” Smith and the Pacific Parachute Company in San Diego. 

Eighty-two years ago, Howard “Skippy” Smith founded the nation’s first black-owned and managed defense production plant in San Diego.  Agin Shaheed will discuss the life of this skydiver turned entrepreneur. Born in Alabama in 1913, “Skippy” Smith moved to Los Angeles California during the Great Depression with little to nothing in his pocket with hopes of becoming a pilot. By 1939, he had become a renowned skydiver with his partner Mac “Skip” Gravelly.  The duo became well known for the difficult and dangerous free fall jumps followed by delayed parachute openings. 

Skippy Smith would eventually move to San Diego and become the first African American hired by defense contractor, Standard Parachute to test, pack and inspect parachutes manufactured for WWII.  Around the same time, comedian Jack Benny’s partner, Eddie” Rochester” Anderson was looking for ways he could contribute to the war effort.  With Anderson’s financial backing, Skippy’s Pacific Parachute Company opened on 8th Street in San Diego in March 1942. 

Agin Shaheed, a native Californian served in the US Navy from 1962-1972.  He was the Race and Human Relation Minority Affairs Advisor for the Commodore of the U. S. Pacific Fleet.

As the Program Manager for Race and Human Relations of San Diego Unified Schools for 18 years, he advised seven Superintendents, and served for ten years as the liaison for the Pupil Advocate Program for African American Males

Agin is now Human Relations consultant for SanDieguito school district for senior management and school site principals. He is a LA South Chamber of Commerce Ambassador and Education Team co-captain. Agin has received recognition and has been profiled in Pulitzer Prize Winner Johnathan Freedmen book, “From the Cradle to the Grave, the Human Face of Poverty,” “The Urban Institute of Washington D. C. Successful African American Males Program,” and profiled as a role model for the State of California Education Department, “Visions,” a rites of passage book for African American males. Agin has co-authored “Our Roots Run Deep, The Black Experience in California 1900-1970, “It’s Your Choice,” San Diego Unified Schools role model manual for African American Males, and authored “Charles C. Flint, The Man and his Times,” an unsung hero of Los Angeles Black history 1884 to 1933. Agin is currently editing and soon will introduce his latest book in the unsung heroes series,” A Musical Blueprint, Ernie Freeman the Man and his Times.”