Carl Jensen "just had a way of inspiring people"

Over seven decades, Carl Jensen used his quiet leadership and devotion to teaching to reach generations of children from the Seattle suburbs to the Cascade Mountains.

Mr. Jensen's work in education, including 18 years as the superintendent of the Highline School District, once earned him the title Citizen of the Century from his neighbors.

Mr. Jensen died of cancer Tuesday (Nov. 21), at his condominium in Des Moines. He was 97.

"He's one of the most remarkable people I've ever known, and I've known a lot of them," said Jim Huntley of Sequim, a retired U.S. diplomat who has rubbed shoulders with prime ministers and other top government officials. "I'll just rank Carl Jensen up with any of them in terms of brains, a sense of duty and civic responsibility."

Huntley's long friendship with Mr. Jensen illustrates the sweep of his work.

The two met in 1937, when Huntley was a 14-year-old student in the Highline School District and Mr. Jensen was a teacher and coach.

Soon after, Mr. Jensen started a summer outdoor program and camp for kids in what was then a rural area. He persuaded the local Kiwanis Club to sponsor the program, and recruited kids such as Huntley to be camp counselors.

After World War II, Mr. Jensen, then a school administrator, found a former government work camp outside North Bend to serve as a permanent home for the program. He solicited donors and used some of his own money to launch Camp Waskowitz, and enlisted Huntley and others to help run it. The outdoor camp and education center is still in operation today.

"He just had a way of inspiring people, and they were inspired enough so that they followed his leadership," said Hans Thompson, who was a young counselor at some of Mr. Jensen's first camps before going on to a career in recreation management, including a stint as head of Seattle's parks and recreation programs.

"It was a quiet kind of thing."

Mr. Jensen took the top job at the Highline School District just as the area was turning into a busy suburb in the post-war boom. He held the job from 1953 until he retired in 1971.

Mr. Jensen's work ethic and love of the outdoors trace back to a childhood spent in rural Washington, as the son of working-class Danish immigrants, his friends said.

Carl Jensen was born Oct. 25, 1909, in Coulee City in central Washington. He spent part of his childhood there before his family moved to Sedro-Woolley, Skagit County.

There, he spent time roaming in the woods with friends. At one point, he hiked though the Cascade Mountains all the way to the remote hamlet of Stehekin, Chelan County, then to Wenatchee, where he hopped a train back toward home, recalled Thompson. He was a dedicated Boy Scout.

Mr. Jensen was also a devoted father, said his son, Larry Jensen, of Des Moines. He would often take his son waterskiing on Puget Sound.

After retirement, Mr. Jensen served on several corporate boards and paid regular visits to Camp Waskowitz, which eventually was officially renamed the Carl Jensen Environmental Education Center.

The camp now hosts 4,000 school-age kids a year, including weeklong camps for fifth- and sixth-graders from school districts throughout the area. Camp Director Roberta McFarland said the programs remain a testament to Mr. Jensen's vision.

The camp's very existence, she said, "was because of Carl's leadership and enthusiasm and undying belief that kids needed an opportunity to explore their natural environment, as well as live together in a participatory democracy."

Mr. Jensen is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, Joanie Jensen, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service has not been scheduled.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com