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Flying High

November/December 2002

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Flying High

Courtesy Elsa Preminger

The sky's the limit for Nancy Griswold Ray, who celebrated her 83rd birthday in August by plunging 12,000 feet through the air at more than 120 mph. It was her second tandem jump since she took up skydiving last spring, surprising even her closest friends. “I would never call Nancy a thrill seeker,” says Elsa McMurphy Preminger, ’41, of Palo Alto. “I just wanted to see how it feels,” explains Ray, who retired in 1981 from an administrative career at Stanford and now lives in Bothell, Wash. And how did it feel? “Like flying,” she says. “The door opens, you step out, and you just say, ‘Whee!’”

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