Central Valley plantation family gives $12.5 Million to Fresno State
FRESNO
January 25, 2012
9:00pm
• Rodger and Margaret Jensen settle grant endowment
• ‘This grant is life-changing for students’
Fresno State alumni Rodger and Margaret Jensen, who are good famous in Central Valley agriculture, assisting colonize blurb pistachio tillage in a region, have set adult a $1.5 million capacity for scholarships to California State University, Fresno.
The Jensens initial met when both were students during a campus some-more than 70 years ago.
The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology has perceived a present that is to advantage students who are majoring in rural business or plant science. The capacity is approaching to cover in-state fee for 7 recipients any educational year in perpetuity. Recipients will be famous as Jensen Scholars.
Fresno State’s full-time undergraduate in-state fee is approximately $6,000 per year.
“The impact of this present will be zero brief of extraordinary,” says Charles Boyer, vanguard of a Jordan College. “This grant is life-changing for students who might not differently be means to grasp their dreams of aloft education.”
Rodger and Margaret Jensen’s rural roots run low in a Central Valley and a integrate has a prolonged story of philanthropy.
Margaret Jensen’s relatives were pioneers in a growth of a San Joaquin Valley’s fig attention in what is now a Fig Garden area of Fresno.
In hopes of assisting to safety a stream bottom, a Jensens donated land to a San Joaquin River Parkway Trust to revive and bond a area between Woodward Park and a river. Margaret Jensen was respected with a Common Threads endowment from a California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, Fresno State’s Jordan College and Ag One in 2004.
A flashy Air Force veteran, 1st Lt. Rodger Jensen was a B-29 commander during World War II. His aircraft “Horrible Monster” finished a final fight goal of a war. His intrepidity was documented in a book “The Last Mission” by Jim Smith and Malcolm McConnell, that desirous a History Channel documentary.
After a war, Rodger Jensen returned to Fresno, where he purchased low-value dryland plantation ground. In 1950 he determined S J Ranch, a plantation government company. During his presidency, S J was one of a largest tree stand farmers in California, largest olive writer and a largest eccentric almond and pistachio processor.
Rodger Jensen was a owner and initial boss of a Pistachio Association. In further to handling endless citrus groves, S J Ranch also managed 3 citrus make-up plants and dual bulb estimate comforts underneath Jensen’s leadership.
S J is now owned by Paramount Citrus. Mr. Jensen continues to plantation citrus and pistachios underneath his association name, Jenco Farms.
Rodger Jensen has served on a Fresno State Board of Governors and on play of a Fresno Historical Society, California and Fresno Chambers of Commerce, North Fresno Rotary and Children’s Hospital of Central California. He has been an attention confidant to a Jordan College and a Craig School of Business during Fresno State.
The Jensens met while attending Fresno State and distinguished their 70th marriage anniversary on Dec. 28, 2011. In 2009 a Jensens were awarded Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees by a California State University trustees, in approval of their veteran accomplishments and use to a community. The degrees were awarded during Fresno State’s 2009 commencement.
Article source: http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=20260