Allan Jensen's nephew Dean Hettler with Evelyn Kleis, organizer of the first part of the evening, showing those gathered the plaque Hettler's son made in honour of Jensen. The plaque will be put up in the Cultural Centre at Medicine Hat College.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
It was a packed meeting for the Historical Society on Thursday this week as members of the Hat Art Club and former students of the late Allan Jensen were on hand to honour the man who passed away on Boxing Day 2020.
“He was so passionate, I share that enthusiasm, for the past, for the arts, for culture, for heritage,” program director Bruce Shepard said to those gathered. “He really cared about this community and its artistic scene.”
“Allan was an ordinary man, too. A lot of people thought he was a semi-god,” said Evelyn Kleis, who has wanted to hold a ‘remember Allan’ event for more than a year.
Jensen was involved in many different areas and Kleis wrote a short piece about the trips they’d taken and activities they had done together. The word that came to her when thinking about Jensen was ‘dignified.’
“He had that spiritual sense of the goodness within people. Allan was a dignified man, that’s how I ended my article.”
Jensen owned an orange 1967 Camaro Z28 with a white rag top, and Kleis was in the car one day when they drove to Calgary to see an art show and returned that night. On the way back, they had the roof down and Janis Joplin singing Me and Bobby McGee turned up loud on the stereo.
Jensen’s nephew, Dean Hettler, came from Airdrie to attend the evening and told a few stories as well.
“He would take us on holidays with my mom because my dad would be working. One time we were on holidays in the ’67 Camaro and us kids were fighting in the back seat. We’d picked all these apples from a tree and he allowed us to throw these apples at the road signs as we were driving along. The people behind us must have thought, ‘Where are the parents?’ It’s no wonder we turned out a little misguided.”
Another story was about Jensen’s idea of fun out on the farm when his nephews were young children. He would pick them up and put them over the fence into the pigpen. The boars would come barrelling over and Jensen would pull the kids out in the nick of time.
“I still can’t eat bacon,” Hettler joked to the crowd.
Hettler’s son Jon made a plaque with Jensen’s photo on it. Below the photo it says, “Allan Jensen was a dignified man and he bestowed dignity on others,” followed by his date of birth and death. The plaque will be put up in the Cultural Centre near the entrance.
