JENSEN, Oliver 1914-2005

(Oliver Ormerod Jensen)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 16, 1914, in Ithaca, NY; died June 30, 2005, in Chester, CT. Editor and author. Jensen was a cofounder of American Heritage magazine. A 1936 graduate of Yale University, he worked briefly in advertising and radio before entering the world of magazine publishing. His early jobs included editorial and writ-ing work with Judge and Life magazines, as well as a year with the Benton & Bowles company in New York City. When the United State entered World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served on ships in the Atlantic and Pacific, including on the U.S.S. Yorktown. His experiences in the Pacific later found their way into his first book, Carrier War (1945). Having risen to the rank of lieutenant, he left the service after the war to return to journalism and publishing. During the 1950s, he was cofounder and president of the publishing consultant firm Thorndike, Jensen & Parton, Inc., and during this time helped to found American Heritage in 1954. Jensen worked on the magazine through the 1960s, serving in various roles, including as managing editor, editor, and senior editor, and then as editorial director of the related Horizon magazine and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Jensen's interest in railroads—he wrote about this fascination in his The American Heritage History of Railroads in America (1975)—led him to leave the magazine in 1971 to become president of the tourist line Connecticut Valley Railroad Co., from which he eventually retired in 1980. Throughout his career, Jensen wrote and edited various books, often in the area of history. Among his credits are The Revolt of American Women (1952), America's Yesterdays: Images of Our Lost Past Discovered in the Photographic Archives of the Library of Congress (1978), and High Honor: Recollections by Men and Women of World War II Aviation (1989), the last of which written with Stuart Leuthner.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2005, p. B11.

New York Times, July 1, 2005, p. A17.

Washington Post, July 3, 2005, p. C8.