Woven into the Wind: The Lasting Legacy of Jim and Jane Skryja
By: Ziggy, Club President
Recently, Paula Skryja, daughter of longtime San Diego Kite Club members Jim and Jane Skryja, contacted the club with a generous offer to donate a collection of kites, banners, and other kite-related items that had belonged to her parents. After coordinating the shipment, the club covered the cost of delivery, and the collection was carefully received, cataloged, and added to the club’s permanent inventory.
Following the donation, Paula and her sister, Peggy, daughters of Jim and Jane, graciously agreed to sit down for an interview to share memories of their parents, their involvement with the San Diego Kite Club, and the lasting impact the club had on their lives. The following article is inspired by that conversation and celebrates the remarkable legacy Jim and Jane left behind.
A Life Guided by Service and the Open Road
To truly understand the footprint Jim and Jane left on the San Diego Kite Club, you have to understand the rhythm of their lives. Jim was a veteran who served his country as an officer in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. His active-duty assignments took the growing family all over the world, their oldest sister, Patty, was born right here in San Diego, while Paula was born during a naval stint in Japan.
After leaving active duty in 1969 and transitioning to the Naval Reserves, Jim pivoted his brilliant logistical mind toward civil engineering. Throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s, Jim’s work involved massive, heavy contract infrastructure projects, building bridges, industrial refineries, and nuclear power plants.
“Back then,” Peggy explained during our interview, “you didn’t just stay with one company for forty-five years. You did the contract work, the project ended, and you moved on.”
Because of this, the Skryja family moved constantly. For many families, that level of transience could lead to isolation. For Jim and Jane, it was an invitation to build a bigger family.
Wherever they landed, whether it was Omaha, Nebraska, the beaches of Florida, the suburbs of Maryland, or halfway across the globe in New Zealand. Jim and Jane operated with a singular, beautiful rule: Engross yourself completely in the community. They volunteered for the Boy Scouts and worked with at-risk youth at Boys Town. They were the ultimate “hand up, we’re here to volunteer” people. And it was during their formative years in New Zealand that Jim discovered a deep, abiding fascination with kite making. Armed with a love for the wind, he began building and flying parafoils, cementing a passion which lead them to the San Diego Kite Club after landing in San Diego.
The Mid-’90s San Diego Golden Era
When Jim and Jane finally moved to San Diego in 1995, they brought decades of community-building experience and a garage full of kite-making materials with them. Peggy and Paula, now charting their own successful adult careers, would visit their parents and find themselves swept up in the magnetic magic of the San Diego Kite Club.
“My dad was like a celebrity down on the field,” Peggy recalled with a laugh. “Everybody knew Jim.”
While Jane played a key role with setup, club’s administration tasks, running the registration desks, handling logistics, and organizing.
A Dining Room Turned Kite Factory
The magic didn’t stop at the shoreline or grassy park. Inside the Skryja home, some activities revolved around the kite community. Peggy and Paula vividly remember walking into the house to find kite paraphernalia.
Jim and Jane would spend weeks meticulously prepping for the club’s miniature kite-making workshops. They engineered micro-kites out of lightweight paper, bamboo skewers, and dental floss, teaching members the intricate physics required make tiny kites.
Here is an article about miniature kite making projects held at the Skryja household – Jim’s Workshop
Securing the Future of the Archive and Skryja Property.
Though we lost Jane a few years ago, and Jim before that, the impact of their generosity is actively being felt by our members today. One item in the donation is a long 12 foot banner. We have already invested in top-tier heavy-duty ground stakes and high-quality pole specifically to fly the banner donated that Jim and Jane’s had flown before. It will fly proudly at our self-representation events, our fighter kite competitions, our historic New Year’s Day fly, and our massive upcoming 36th Anniversary Celebration on July 11th. It will be flown until the wind finally wears the fabric away. This article will contribute to the archive and the Skryja’s family involvement with our club.
The Quintessential Power Couple
To close our conversation, Peggy shared an incredible anecdote that proved Jim and Jane’s community spirit wasn’t just a “kite thing” it was an entirely distinct way of being human.
In the fragile, heavy year following the tragedy of September 11th, Jim and Jane moved to New York City for a civil engineering contract. They lived in the Gateway apartments, directly across the street from One World Plaza where Jim worked, adjacent to Ground Zero. The neighborhood was deeply wounded, gripped by severe collective trauma and PTSD. New York is famously tough on outsiders, but Jim and Jane didn’t let that stop them.
Within a mere six months of moving into the building, they organized a comprehensive civilian Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), uniting both massive high-rise apartment structures. They gave their grieving neighbors a shared purpose, a vital safety net, and a tangible sense of control in a world that felt broken. That very same CERT team is still active and saving lives in New York City today.
When Peggy finished the story, the gravity of who they were hung beautifully in the air.
“They were just one hell of a power couple in every sense of the word,” I told them.
Jim and Jane Skryja didn’t just pass through communities; they anchored them. They gave people a reason to look up, smile, and connect. To Peggy and Paula: thank you for sharing your parents with us, and thank you for trusting us with their legacy. The next time you see a banner catching a heavy gust, know that Jim and Jane are still out there on the field, and keeping our community flying.