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RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Hans Jorgens Jensen, a U.S. gold
medalist in rowing at the 1948 Olympics, died at 79. He died Monday at a Riverside County hospital. The cause of
death was not available. Jensen learned to row at the University of California, Berkeley
in the 1940s. He was part of the team of Cal rowers that won a gold
medal at the London Games. Jensen did not race in the final heat
but was an alternate for a sick teammate during the semifinals. "The guy who had the seat had the flu all week long, and on the
day of the final heat he came back and sat in his seat," said his
daughter, Andrea Jensen Gregg, of Issaquah, Wash. His Olympic jacket still hangs in the university's boathouse. In
1998, he was honored at the Cal boathouse in Oakland and at the New
York Athletic Club during 50-year celebrations for the U.S. Olympic
team. Jensen trained as an aviator at Pensacola Naval Air Station in
Florida during World War II and returned to Berkeley after the war
to graduate in 1949. His Scandinavian heritage helped him land a job with the Central
Intelligence Agency as a Scandinavian specialist. His family
traveled with him to assignments in Denmark, Norway and West
Germany. For 30 years, he used a cover story, telling people he
worked as a foreign service officer or political attache. Jensen also is survived by his second wife, Lisa Vetter Jensen;
sons Peter Barron Jensen and Kurt Martin Jensen; and four
grandchildren. No memorial service was planned.
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