Jon Morrow Lindbergh died recently at the age of 88. He was an American underwater diver who worked as a United States Navy demolition expert and as a commercial diver. He was also a pioneer in cave diving and was one of the world’s earliest aquanauts in the 1960s. He was one of the children of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

His father, Charles Lindbergh, was the first to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic from New York City to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. In doing so, he became a worldwide celebrity. In 1932, Anne and Charles Lindbergh’s first child was kidnapped and murdered in what would become known as the “crime of the century.” Jon Lindbergh was born on August 16, 1932, only five months after the death of his older brother. 

The New York Times notes that Jon grew up with constant security protection, initially with his parents at the heavily guarded estate of his maternal grandmother in Englewood, N.J. Even as a baby he received death threats. His parents were frequently absent during his early years, leaving him with his grandmother as they flew to various cities around the world on test flights and promotional tours.

Although Jon learned to fly as a teenager, his father advised him not to pursue aviation as a career. Instead, he turned toward the sea.

In March 1953, when Jon Lindbergh was studying marine biology at Stanford University, he made the first successful cave dive in the United States at Bower Cave in California. 

When Jon Lindbergh graduated from Stanford, where he had been a member of the Navy ROTC, he did postgraduate work at the University of California, San Diego. He served for three years as a frogman with the United States Navy Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He then became a commercial diver, working for Offshore Divers, Inc. in Santa Barbara, California, and making dives from offshore oil rigs on the West Coast of the United States at depths between 230 and 400 feet.

In June–July 1964, Lindbergh became an early aquanaut when he participated in Edwin Link’s second Man in Sea experiment, conducted in the Bahamas. Lindbergh’s fellow diver for this venture Robert Sténuit 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.

In 1966, as part of a team from Ocean Systems, Inc., Jon Lindbergh participated in the recovery efforts when a hydrogen bomb was lost off the coast of Spain.

He later helped install Seattle’s water treatment system in icy waters as deep as 600 feet. He later farmed salmon in Puget Sound and in Chile as part of an emerging aquaculture industry and sold the fish to airlines and restaurants.

Jon’s daughter Kristina Lindbergh said the cause of his death was metastatic renal cancer. He died at his home in Lewisburg, W.Va. 

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.