Allen E. Jensen

Former Alaska resident Allen E. Jensen, 87, died July 19, 2008 at Emerson House in Boise, Idaho.  

 Jenson was born in Montpellier, Idaho, on Sept. 8, 1920. He attended Idaho State University, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. Jensen served in the U.S. Navy as a flight instructor and PB4Y2 bomber pilot. On Feb. 10, 1943 he married Rhea Nelson in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

 After the war, he went to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked at several locations: Lucky Peak Reservoir (Boise), Glasgow AFB (Mont.) and later the Seattle District Office.

 Jensen moved to Alaska in 1967 to work on the Snettisham Hydroelectric Project in Juneau. In 1968, Jensen was promoted to Anchorage area resident engineer, working on military construction projects until he retired from federal service in 1975. After retiring from the Corps of Engineers, Jensen spent several winters on the North Slope as a senior engineering consultant overseeing construction of ice roads and drilling platforms near the Beaufort Sea. Summers were still reserved for flying and fishing.

 Jensen had a successful retirement flying his float plane, fishing and traveling. His passion was fishing in Alaska, which he actively pursued up to his 85th birthday. Jensen traveled yearly from his home in Wasilla to his winter home in Boise, Idaho.

His family said Jensen was always willing to share his love of Alaska and vast knowledge of fishing with family and friends. “Alaska’s beauty and bountiful fishing has touched many lives through his willingness to share the Alaska adventure,” they wrote.

 Jensen was preceded in death by his parents Ellen and Andrew; brother Robert; sister Ruth Rosquist; wife, Rhea (Nelson), and wife, Dorothy (Chick).

 He is survived by daughter Karen Smith and her husband, Terry, of Middleton, Idaho; son David Jensen and his wife, Sherry, of Wasilla; grandson Aaron Smith, wife Ginny, their two children Wyatt and Addison, all of New Plymouth, Idaho; granddaughter Andrea Smith of Loveland, Colo.; and friend and long-time companion Sharlene McMillin of Boise.

 His ashes will be scattered at a favorite fishing spot, No Tell’em Creek, in the Susitna Valley.