On the morning of May 15, 2004 Gene passed away peacefully at his home
in Inverness, FL after a long illness. He will be missed by all of us
who've had the opportunity to know him.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 6th at Ketter Canoeing
following the annual Jensen Handicap canoe race. All are invited to
attend. Anyone owning one of Gene's personal builds is especially
invited to bring it to the memorial.
Over his career, Gene is responsible for a number of major innovations
in canoe racing and touring, including:
“HUT”
The bent shaft paddle
Over 100 commercially produced canoe designs, including:
Jensen 17 (Canadian Std Class),
Minnesota II, the BWCA boat of choice
V1 3x27 Pro boat
V1A 4x32 Cruiser
J series of C-1s (J180, 190, 200, etc)
All of these designs were born on the water, and refined through Gene's
ability to paddle as well as build fine canoes. Gene non only crafted
outstanding desings, but also won most of the major North American
marathon races at least once, many of them multiple times.

For those interested, the Jensen handicap was started many years ago as
a way to randomly decide who got to paddle with Gene. Experienced/pro
paddlers ;ine up on one side, the rookies and less experienced paddlers
on the other and draw cards to see who partners with who, and then have
a little (30min) race on the Mississippi River followed by a potluck.
This year will be special. Anyone interested in coming from out of
town, please contact Ketter Canoeing. We'll try to arrange paddler's
lodging.

Also, a number of you sent contributions to help defray Gene's expenses
coming home. Since this did not happen, we are returning these
contributions with our grateful thanks.


The memorial will be at Ketter Canoeing
7878 Mississippi Lane
Brooklyn Park, MN 55444
Phone: 763-561-2208
For directions see: www.kettercanoeing.com/contact.html

Cards can be sent to Gene's family at:
Audrey Jensen
308 78th Ave. N.
Brooklyn Park, MN 55444