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Ted Jorgensen

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Ted Jorgensen
Jorgensen c. 1962
Born
Theodore Jorgensen

(1944-10-10)October 10, 1944
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMarch 16, 2015(2015-03-16) (aged 70)
Alma materUniversity of New Mexico
Occupations
Employers
Organization(s)Albuquerque Unicycle Club (President, 1962)
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1963; div. 1965)​
Linda Jorgensen
​
(m. 1988)​
Children5[a], including Jeff Bezos

Theodore Jorgensen (October 10, 1944 – March 16, 2015) was an American unicycle hockey player, the president of the world's first unicycle hockey club, and a bicycle shop owner-operator. He was the biological father of e‑commerce magnate Jeff Bezos.

Jorgensen was born in Chicago to a Danish-American family that moved to Albuquerque when he was a teenager. Jorgensen was a unicyclist who performed at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and in 1962 became the president of Albuquerque Unicycle Club, the world's first unicycle hockey club. He married Jackie Gise in 1963 and fathered Jeff with her in 1964, before divorcing her when Jeff was seventeen months old. After the separation, Jorgensen agreed to not contact either of them.

Jorgensen lived with heart issues in his later life, ran a bicycle shop in Glendale, Arizona, and was married to his new wife, Linda. In 2012, journalist Brad Stone informed Jorgensen that his biological son was an e-commerce billionaire, something Stone had discovered while researching for his book The Everything Store. Jorgensen died in 2015.

Early life and circus career

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Jorgensen was born into a Baptist family in 1943 or 1944[1] in Chicago and grew up with his younger brother Gordon. His paternal grandfather was a Danish veteran of the Spanish-American War. After his father took a purchasing job at Sandia National Laboratories, the family moved to Bernalillo, New Mexico, while the boys were in elementary school.[2]

As a teenager and young adult, Jorgensen was both a hobby and professional unicyclist competing in unicycle hockey as part of the Albuquerque Unicycle Club,[2] the world's first unicycle hockey club.[3]

He became vice president of the club 1959,[4] won the club's award for "most versatile rider" in 1961[5] and took over as club president in 1962.[6]

On the sixteenth and seventeenth of February 1963, he was part of the Unicycle Wranglers circus troupe that performed at the Greater New Mexico Sports Show at the Tingley Coliseum.[7] He also performed for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus[8] and, in 1965, for the Rude Brothers Circus.[2] The same year, he unsuccessfully auditioned for The Ed Sullivan Show.[2]

Family life and education

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In high school, Jorgensen dated Jackie Gise. She became pregnant in 1963 when Jorgensen was 18 and she was 16, shortly before they got married in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They had a second ceremony in the United States on July 19 the same year.[2] Gise gave birth to Jeff Bezos on January 12, 1964,[2] two weeks after Gise's 17th birthday.[9] They named the child Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen at birth.[1][2]

Jorgensen drank alcohol problematically, and struggled financially.[10] He supplemented his circus income by working at the Globe department store while studying at the University of New Mexico. His academic fees were paid by Gise's father, who also worked with Jorgensen's father at Sandia. Gise left Jorgensen to live with her parents, filing for divorce in June 1965 when Jeff was seventeen months old.[2] Gise's new husband Miguel Bezos, with Jorgensen's support, adopted Jeff. Gise and her husband and son left that area and asked Jorgensen to discontinue contact, to which he agreed,[1] relinquishing custody.[11]

Later life and death

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In his twenties, Jorgensen moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, to open a bicycle shop, before moving to Tucson, Arizona. In 1972, he was struck in the face with a stick while being robbed, breaking his jaw.[10] After moving to Phoenix in 1974, Jorgensen opened a bicycle retail establishment.[1] He later relocated the Roadrunner Bike Center[12] to Glendale, Arizona.[1] Around 1988, Jorgensen married his second wife, Linda,[11] who had four sons with a previous partner.[13] Jorgensen's stepsons Darin and Todd Fala both worked at his bicycle repair shop.[13]

In 2012,[10] journalist and author Brad Stone contacted Jorgensen after identifying him as billionaire Jeff Bezos's biological father while researching for his upcoming book The Everything Store, which was published in 2013. Jorgensen had forgotten Jeff's adopted surname and had been unaware how his son grew up until then.[1] "I wasn't a good father or husband," Jorgensen told Stone during their meeting.[14] One year after learning who his son was, Jorgensen had not reconnected to Bezos.[13] In 2014, he spoke on Inside Edition about his desire to apologize to Jeff Bezos.[11]

Jorgensen lived with heart problems and emphysema.[15] He died on March 16, 2015,[16] aged 70.[17]

Notes

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  1. ^ 1 biological with Jackie Gise (Jeff Bezos) and 4 stepsons with Linda Jorgensen

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Barr, Alistair (October 10, 2013). "Bike shop owner discovers he's father of Amazon founder". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Brad Stone, (2013). The Everything Store. United States: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-21926-6
  3. ^ Steven Ellis (March 13, 2021) The Weird, Wild and Wacky World Of Unicycle Hockey Archived September 28, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, The Hockey News
  4. ^ Unicyclists Name Slate Archived March 28, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Albuquerque Tribune, March 26, 1959, Page 41
  5. ^ "Unicycle Club Plans Dinner". Albuquerque Tribune. March 25, 1961. p. 8. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  6. ^ "Unicycle Club Plans Banquet". Albuquerque Tribune. March 27, 1962. p. 20. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  7. ^ "Unicyclists On Program". Albuquerque Tribune. February 15, 1963. pp. B-11. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  8. ^ Chris McNab, (2022). Jeff Bezos: The World-Changing Entrepreneur. United Kingdom: Arcturus Publishing. ISBN 9781398821712
  9. ^ Tom Robinson, (2009). Jeff Bezos: Amazon.com Architect. United States: ABDO Publishing ISBN 9781604537598
  10. ^ a b c Stone, Brad (October 10, 2013). "The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on December 16, 2022. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c "How Bike Shop Owner Discovered He Was Jeff Bezos' Dad". Inside Edition. January 2014. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  12. ^ Rasmussen, Benjamin (March 27, 2013). "Ted Jorgensen, Biological Father of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos". Getty Images. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c Giblin, Paul (October 11, 2013). "Estranged father mum on Amazon CEO". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  14. ^ Author Finds Bezos' Biological Dad Archived March 28, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Burlington Times-News, October 13, 2013, Page 28
  15. ^ Stone, Brad (October 13, 2013). "He grew up to be one of the world's richest men and has changed all our lives. Yet his father has known nothing of his success ... until now". The Times. ProQuest 1441493150. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  16. ^ Janseen, Kim (February 20, 2018). "Who was Jeff Bezos' tenuous personal tie to Chicago? The unicycle-riding circus performer who was his biological father". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  17. ^ McDowell, Erin (January 12, 2022). "Jeff Bezos turns 58 today. Here are 14 things you might not know about the Amazon founder". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
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