Don Jensen is South Valley’s
”
Renaissance man.
”
You’ll discover in this 6-foot, 6-inch tall Morgan Hill
landscape architect a diversity of creative pursuits unifying in a
life that enhances his local community.
Don Jensen is South Valley’s “Renaissance man.” You’ll discover in this 6-foot, 6-inch tall Morgan Hill landscape architect a diversity of creative pursuits unifying in a life that enhances his local community.
When he’s not designing a public park or the yard around someone’s home, the self-proclaimed “wood alchemist” enjoys transforming discarded logs into artistic furniture and exquisite decorative pieces. And as an amateur tuba player, he also serves as a founding member of the Morgan Hill Wind Symphony.
This miscellany of creative interests “all flows between each other,” he said as he relaxed in an easy chair in his Queen Anne-style Victorian home near Morgan Hill’s downtown.
“It’s a little unusual in today’s terms because we’re all taught to be specialists. We’re paid to be a specialist, so it’s a struggle. In life, to be a generalist, you have to know so much about so many things, none of which you can become a specialist in. So that’s why I chose landscape architecture – because you have to know so much about so many different things like the environment, soils, history.”
The son of Barbara and Donald Jensen, a U.S. Air Force career officer, Jensen was born at Johnson Air Force Base an hour’s drive south of Tokyo, Japan. On March 10, he turned 50. He admitted with a chuckle he was “kind of scared” about the milestone.
“I’m told by other people who have experienced more of life than I have that this is where the fun starts,” he said. “I have my fingers crossed.”
If the next 50 years are as interesting as the first, he has nothing to worry about. A “military brat,” he traveled around much of the world with his family, living as a kid in Florida, Washington state, and Vandenberg Air Force Base near San Luis Obispo. In 1961 when the Air Force stationed his father at Onizuka Air Force base, his family settled down in nearby Mountain View. There in fourth grade, his best friend was Steve Jobs – who later co-founded Apple Computer.
A few years later, the Jensens moved to an American satellite-tracking base on the stunning Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. The three years he spent there created in him an eternal love of the outdoors. He spent his leisure time exploring the islands, sail-boating, diving, deep-sea fishing and enjoying the wonders of nature.
“The Seychelles were very instrumental to me learning about nature and landscape,” he said. His time in that tropical paradise planted the seeds for his life-long interested in landscape architecture.
In his childhood, both his parents encouraged him to explore various interests. His father took him to wood-working shops in the various military bases they lived on and taught him how to use the lathe and other machines.
“It was my mother who really challenged me to be better,” he said. “She constantly enrolled my brother and I into every available extracurricular activity that you could imagine.”
In the early 1980s, after graduating from CalPoly San Luis Obispo with a degree in landscape architecture and finding a job with a San Jose-based architecture firm, Jensen and his wife, Beverly, settled down in Morgan Hill to start a family. The town’s friendly ambiance, that reminded him of his childhood memories of Mountain View, had drawn him to the South Valley.
Over the years, the couple have mixed community involvement with time raising daughters Anita and Kristen – now both married to men they met in the Live Oak High School band.
Jensen has been dynamically active in efforts to improve Morgan Hill in the last two decades. He has served as president of the Downtown Revitalization Board (now called the Downtown Association), director of the Chamber of Commerce, the board of the Morgan Hill Historical Society, and also as the landscape expert on the architectural subcommittee of the Architectural Review Board. He is currently on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
His landscape architecture business keeps him busy in the warm spring and summer months, but in the slower winter season, Jensen spends much of his time in the detached workroom behind his house. There he transforms old lumber into music boxes, candlesticks, pepper grinders, TV stands, bookcases and many other beautifully-designed objects of “wood alchemy.”
“The literal term ‘alchemy’ means the process of transmuting ordinary material into something special,” he said. “For me, I try to transform wood into gallery level products…. I mill most of my wood. I don’t buy that much. People call me and say, ‘Hey, I have a log of this (type of wood). My parents planted this tree when I was a child, and the wind blew it over. Can you do something with it?'”
Most of the time, Jensen is able to indeed do something with it – transform lumber most people would burn as firewood into special heirlooms to be passed from generation to generation.
His interest in his craft began as a kid in the Boy Scouts. “It started as a wood-working merit badge project,” he said. Since then, he’s basically taught himself through reading books and watching how-to videos.
“I work with nothing but hardwoods,” he said, describing the locally-grown elm, walnut and cherry wood he uses. “I don’t like working with soft woods too much. My landscape architecture background gave me an appreciation of wood and species.”
In the living room of his Victorian home, he points out a beautiful heirloom piece. He made the finely crafted table from wood passed down through his family from Oklahoma ancestors during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s.
“I basically took rough lumber, seriously chewed up and stuff, and turned it into something special,” he said with pride in his low voice.
Besides displaying his craftsmanship around his home, Jensen also sells his wood creations at the Gallery Morgan Hill and the gift shop at Andy’s Orchards.
Over the last few years, Jensen and Beverly, who teaches second grade at El Toro School, have been busy remodeling their historic 1904 home located directly behind the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse theater. The home was once occupied by one of Morgan Hill’s first physicians, Dr. Ruben Newbold. The Jensens share the home with their dog Daisy.
Jensen laughed as he stood up to his full height in the upstairs bathroom. The crown of his head touched the low ceiling. “I have to bend my neck when I use this room,” he said.
Downstairs in the kitchen, he pointed out various details of the 1,600-square-foot house that has become a labor of love for him and his wife.
“The house has been kind of our project where we work together,” Jensen said. “Bev’s really been my anchor in my life… She’s really my soul mate. Our lives together are really intertwined. We support each other.”
Besides his wife and two daughters, Jensen also remains close with his parents. His father lives in The Villages retirement home in San Jose.
His mother lives across the street from him in a house he helped to rebuild. Jensen and his wife first met in a music class at CalPoly where he played the tuba and she played the clarinet. About 15 years ago, their mutual love of music prompted them to meet with Steve Potter, the music director at Morgan Hill’s Presbyterian Church, to see if he might help them start a symphony focused exclusively on wind-based musical instruments. The Morgan Hill Wind Symphony has grown into a popular music forum that adds another rich dimension to Jensen’s life.
And to keep in shape, Jensen swims three or four times a week at Morgan Hill’s recently-opened Aquatics Center. He began his swimming love as a child as a member of the Mountain View Dolphins swim team.
As he approaches the half-century point of his life, Don Jensen continues to stay active with a variety of diverse interests. His wood work and landscaping businesses, tuba playing and involvement in preserving the history of Morgan Hill, all highlight his many talents and interests and prove he is indeed South Valley’s “Renaissance man.”
Don Jensen’s business is located at his home at 20 E. 5th St. in Morgan Hill. His phone number is (408) 778-2495. Web site: www.donjensendesigns.com
