MILLCREEK — The family and friends of a Millcreek man are remembering him as a Zamboni driver, classic car lover, parafencer enthusiast and a friend to everyone he met.
“He was the best dad. He was just so generous,” Shelby Jensen Mitchell said. “I was definitely a daddy’s girl growing up.”
Jed Jensen, 64, severely injured his neck and spinal column in a vehicle crash in South Salt Lake on Dec. 2. After 27 days of ups and downs and two surgeries, he died Sunday.
“He was very service-oriented. I was given everything I ever wanted and could hope for, and I’m trying to learn how to be that service-oriented,” Mitchell said about her father.
Sheri Jensen, Jensen’s wife of more than 31 years, said her husband was a big people person who loved meeting and befriending everyone he could.
“I’m just overwhelmed by the outpouring and the memories of people we don’t even know sending messages. I knew he was a good guy, I knew that he was friends with everyone, but it’s really been overwhelming and amazing,” she said.
‘Zamboni Santa’
A man of many hobbies, Jed Jensen took up Zamboni driving in just the last few years at Millcreek Common.
“He loved it. He just really enjoyed being there and being with people,” Sheri Jensen said.
Because of his iconic long, white beard, Jed Jensen loved dressing up as Santa, and so while doing the Zamboni during Christmas, it just made sense to put on the red suit, she said.
“Jed Jensen was our Zamboni Santa, community connector, classic car enthusiast, and fun-loving friend. To remember our friend at Millcreek Common, black bands have been placed on the Zamboni in honor of Jed,” the city of Millcreek said on Facebook.
Parafencing’s biggest fan
Mitchell is a Paralympic fencer who competed in the 2020 Tokyo games. She said her dad was her biggest fan, and he was a major part of the Utah Fencing Foundation.
Foundation director Bill Nikolai first met Jed Jensen through Mitchell, who was volunteering for an adaptive recreational summer camp. Soon after, Mitchell started parafencing, and the entire Jensen family got involved.
“When Shelby started fencing, and Jed saw she was really thriving, he just started giving everything he could to support the program that was doing this for his daughter. Sheri just jumped in also. It’s been a team all along,” Nikolai said.
Nikolai fondly remembers crawling on the floor with Jed Jensen at dozens of tournaments to help the athletes get in and out of the fencing chairs and secure the chairs to the floor. The Jensens help out the foundation in every way, Nikolai said, and Sheri Jensen even became the vice president and treasurer.
“There’s really only three people involved in the administration for Utah Fencing Foundation, and now there’s two of us,” he said. “He carried this program on his back.”
Because the Jensens have traveled all over for fencing tournaments, they are receiving condolences and heartfelt comments from people all over the world who have been impacted by Jed Jensen.
“Jed is an amazing person. Everybody he meets is a friend after that,” Nikolai said.
Parafencing can be quite expensive due to specialized equipment, but Jed Jensen wanted to fix that so more people could join the sport. He designed a chair that meets all the legal requirements for parafencing but could be more widely and cost-effectively produced.
“They were perfect — just what the community needed,” Nikolai said.
USA Fencing posted in honor of Jensen Wednesday, saying his impact on parafencing “will forever be remembered as a testament to his passion, ingenuity and love for others.”
“Jed’s contributions went far beyond his technical creations. He was a man of warmth and generosity, known for his open heart, quick humor and ability to make everyone feel like family,” USA Fencing said.
“Jed’s Chairs” have been sent all over the country for parafencing clubs to use, and other countries are starting to make prototypes based on his design, Sheri Jensen said.
“This concept that Jed came up with here in the U.S. has spread,” she said tearfully, reflecting on how he loved helping people in the sport.
A welcoming man
“Anyone he came into contact with would be 99.9% struck with his charm and become best friends with him,” Mitchell said, adding that he was a “chatterbox” who had a way of connecting with others.
Jed Jensen was a part of Willie’s Official Welcoming Car Community, which hosts car shows and uses profits to feed families during Thanksgiving and gives out presents at Christmastime.
Jaymes Martinez said Jed Jensen has been a cheerleader for the organization. He would roll up to the car shows in his ’56 Ford flatbed and “scare the heck out of everyone” with an airhorn.
“We’re going to miss him in this community, but he has done phenomenal things for us and we will continue to as we say, spread smiles for miles,” Martinez said.
Martinez said even still after Jed’s death, there are people joining the community because he was so welcoming to them.
“It makes this world a better place to have people like Jed in it,” Martinez said.
For the funeral, Jed Jensen will be transported on the back of his beloved ’56 Ford, his family said.
“He loved being part of the community and loved helping and being out there,” Sheri Jensen said. “Jed made an impact because he made a friend. He was there to help.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
