Toowoomba Chronicle Obituaries

Courtesy of The Chronicle Toowoomba

Ron JENSEN

Well-known Toowoomba grocer Mr Ron Jensen has died aged 78 years. He spent his life in the grocery business and lived through the Great Depression. Mr Jensen was well known for his service to the community. He was a past president of the Toowoomba branch of the Royal Guide Dogs for the Blind; past president and honorary life member of the Toowoomba Golf Club, past president of the South Toowoomba Rotary Club, member of Probus, past president of Senior Citizen's Auxiliary Club, director of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society, past president of the Mater Dei St Vincent de Paul Society and a driver for Meals on Wheels. Times were tough when Mr Jensen started out as a 15-year-old in the small village of Yangan and three out of five young people were unemployed. After passing his Junior Certificate at high school in Warwick and being unable to find work, Mr Jensen came to Toowoomba where he found both a job and lodgings with relatives in a little corner shop. The business soon folded and Mr Jensen was without employment. A colleague found Mr Jensen a position at the grocery shop of "Curly" Anderson, who was later to become Mayor and a Member of State Parliament. Ron was paid 27 shillings and sixpence a week with risies every year on his birthday. The shop was in Ruthven Street, near the present site of The Chronicle building. Jobs were so scarce that is was usual to ask prospective employees to find 20 new customers before being given a job. In 1939, Ron became engaged to wife-to-be Joy, and was saving hard for their marriage. But the £175 he had put away in a building society was put to another use when Mr Jensen was asked if he would like to take over another Anderson shop. Mr Jensen gave the Andersons £100 for the business. Ron retired in 1972 after spending his life in the grocery business, later building a new shop opposite the old one and, in 1951, opening the city's first cash and carry shop; a forerunner of today's supermarkets. He is survived by his wife Joy, John and Sue Jensen, and grandchildren Toni, Damien, Dominique, Christine and Wayne Le Bon, Catherine, Katherine, Kitsten, Simone and Stewart.

Published in "The Chronicle", Toowoomba on 10 August 1993

Born: June 8, 1913

Died: May 7, 2002

There are not too many people in the Quinalow area who wouldn't know Ted Jensen, who lived in the area all his life, and was proprietor of the local garage.

Born in Toowoomba, Theodore William was the eldest of six children to William and Pauline Jensen (nee Kanowski). He grew up in the Maclagan district where he attended the local state school, leaving at the age of 13 to work on the family farm. In 1935, Ted married Norma Pegg in Toowoomba, and later that year drew a 5000 acre block of land at Wandoan, which he decided to forfeit on his father's advice that it would be akin to 12 years in jail. Instead he took employment at the Maclagan cheese factory, where he worked for the next nine years, obtaining certificates in engine driving and cheese making. Ted also worked at the Malling cheese factory for a number of years, before moving to Quinalow after World War II, where he and Norma bought a fuel depot and a home. With the help of family and friends, Ted built a workshop on the grounds, and the fuel depot started out as Pool Petroleum. Later Ted became an agent for Vacuum Oil Company, which eventually changed to Mobil Australia, and then for the last 25 years was with Shell Company of Australia. Initially Ted did small mechanical jobs, welding and repair work, as well as starting up the Quinalow school bus run.

As business grew, he built a bigger workshop and employed staff, and when his sons Trevor and Arnold were old enough to help in the family business, he erected an engineering building. Trevor and Arnold still run the business, Quinalow Garage and Hardware and Jensen Farming Company today with the help of their wives. During his spare time, Ted enjoyed playing cards and tennis, fishing, and following sport, particularly the endeavours of the Brisbane Broncos. His favourite hobby was bee-keeping, and his family believe the many stings he received over the years may well have contributed to his longevity. Even after retirement, Ted never stopped working, walking to the garage each day to see that everything was running smoothly.

Ted moved to the McDonald Nursing Home at Oakey in February 2000, where he still maintained an interest in the business where possible, but eventually Parkinson's Disease caused his health to deteriorate rapidly. Ted Jensen died in Oakey aged 89. He is survived by his wife Norma, children Trevor, Arnold, Glenys and Noelene and their partners, 17 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, a brother, and three sisters. His eldest daughter Loretta predeceased him.

Published in “The Chronicle”, Toowoomba, 28th November, 2002.

Mary Elizabeth Jones

The death occurred on April 23, 1993, of Mary Elizabeth Jones of Toowoomba. Mary emigrated to Australia at the age of 15 from Wales with her mother and they settled in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, where she worked on a dairy farm. She joined the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) and was stationed at Cabarlah, where she served in the Signals Division for nine years. Her mother moved to Toowoomba to be near her and they lived in Toowoomba for more than 20 years. During this time Mary was an active member of St James's Church and was a caring and community-spirited person. She was a capable farmer and gardener, a creative model builder, and gave considerable help and friendship to several local Vietnamese families. She always worked against the injustices she saw in the world, helping the disadvantaged with their problems. She cared for her mother, who recently suffered a stroke and who sorely misses her long-time companion's support and friendship. Mary was predeceased by her brother Peter, and is survived by sister Julia, late of Toowoomba and now of Deception Bay, brother Jeffrey of North Ryde, and her mother Florence. Her funeral service at St James's Church was well attended, a testament to her popularity. In keeping with Mary's compassionate spirit, instead of floral tributes, donations were accepted for the Cancer Fund. She was cremated at the Crematorium at the Toowoomba Garden of Remembrance. Printed in "The Chronicle", Toowoomba 22nd May 1993.

Frank JARVIS (1936-2001)

Frank Jarvis's funeral notice read: "Now arguing with God." For anyone who knew him -- and everyone seemed to know Frank -- they would recognise the truth in these words. Frank wouldn't be happy unless he was engaging in a debate with somebody, and who better for this indomitable character to take on than the most challenging adversary of all? Anyone who met Frank never forgot him, and would in all probability have a funny story to tell about him. He was one of those unique individuals who made an impact, and while he didn't suffer fools gladly, he was immensely popular within the USQ community and throughout Toowoomba. Born in Harpenden, England in 1936, - Franklin Huddleston Jarvis and his sister Ann were raised in a household where individuality and freedom of ex- pression were encouraged. Frank received his secondary education at Rugby, a leading public school, before going up to Cambridge to study law. Although he graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, Frank was never inspired to enter into the legal profession. He was probably prouder of other achievements from his time as an under-graduate -- being awarded a Cambridge Blue for beating Oxford three years running in Bridge, playing in the English Bridge team against the United States, playing with Bing Crosby in the Italian Open Golf Championship, and making wildlife films in Kenya, Africa. Frank was a man of many interests, including golf, cricket, fishing, back- gammon, and cryptic crosswords, and for three years was the President of the Toowoomba Art Society. Nothing fired his imagination however quite like computers. Computing tech- nology was in its very early infancy when Frank discovered it during his uni- versity days, but he knew immediately that this was where his future lay. Upon graduation, Frank accepted a position working in Australia for the Department of Defence in the computer industry, and arrived in the country he would one day call home in 1965. It was during his early years in Australia that Frank met Pat at a Bridge Congress, and married her in 1969. Although Frank had won the Australian Pairs Championship in Bridge in 1967, he and Pat didn't play the game together very often -- the ensuing arguments did not bode well for a harmonious marriage! Frank maintained - a close relationship with Pat's sons Graeme and Rod, and the following 32 years were happy ones for the family. In 1971, the Jarvis's moved to Toowoomba, and Frank started work as a lecturer in computing studies at the Toowoomba Institute of Technology (now the University of Southern Queensland). He was present when the first com- puter was installed at the Institute in - 1972 - a piece of equipment that filled a room. It was in teaching that Frank recognised his true calling in life - he was a born teacher, intellectually rigorous, passionate and honest. Students loved Frank, and he will represent for many of them the highlight of their university experience. When Frank retired from USQ in 1999, he was a Senior Lecturer with the Faculty of Business. He loved his job, but was never driven by ambition. For Frank, life was full of too many other pleasures to slave over a desk. He was the founding member in 1981 of the "Saturday Club", a group of friends who would meet weekly to talk over a drink and a bowl of chips. The art of conversation was one at which Frank was a master, and while the Saturday Club won't be lost for words, his input will be sorely missed. The University of Southern Queensland paid tribute to Frank's work in the field of computers with the unveiling in March this year of the "Frank Jarvis Network Laboratory". It was a fitting honour for a man who helped pioneer the early days of computing technology in Australia. Yet Frank's greatest legacy will lie in the stories his friends will tell of his life -- the humorous, the outrageous, and the ones that are "just Frank". His exploits will be relived, and this larger-than-life man will be fondly remembered by a community in which he was everyone's favourite character. - printed in "The Chronicle", Toowoomba, Saturday 23rd June 2001.

Inventor leaves indelible mark:

George Johnston

1917-2000

After living for more than half a century on the Darling Downs, Scottish entrepreneur, artist and inventor George Alexander Johnston died on Monday, December 11, aged 83. In 1952, George left his home, his wife Aileen, their three young sons, and two successful painting and decorating businesses in Scotland to start a life in Australia. He arrived in Dalby in the middle of a heatwave on a Monday. By Tuesday he had bought a house. And by Wednesday he started work as a master painter, and nominated his family to join him. The "10-pound passage" from Scotland to Australia cost the family less than the rest of their journey from Brisbane to Dalby. Two years later, George built and opened the first motels in Queensland. The Wishing Well Motel encompassed petrol bowsers, a grocery shop, a fish and chip shop, and a restaurant. An entrepreneur with an amazing capacity for setting ideas in motion, George constantly created and invented. Readers of The Chronicle, The Western Star and The Australian Telegraph have been following George's endeavours since 1954. In recent years, The Chronicle reported on George's inventions, including the appropriately named Scoop the Poop, and the amazing dog chastity belt. Before these, the list of his remarkable inventions included the slim cycle, the letter guide, the rural letter box, a side bracket for utes, a canine travelling compartment, an antproof dog bowl, and the wunda cot ....to name a few! George and his inventions appeared several times on the ABC television show The Inventors, and in the 1970s he received the Geneva Silver Medal for Inventions: Following the sale of his Dalby and Roma businesses, George could have slowed down a little and spent more time on one of his favourite past-times -- lawn bowls. Instead, George and Aileen bought 263 hectares in Grantham. George was always willing to take on a new challenge. He demonstrated his skills in farming, horse breeding, grey-hound breeding and racing, building and operating boarding kennels, building and operating fruit stalls (including Greenacres and Plainlands), landscaping, house building and property development. In George's spare time, he created works of art which he sold locally and further afield. His artistic talents extended to oil painting, wood turning, decorating ostrich eggs, polishing and setting gemstones, sculpting and stone carving.: In the words of a couple of his grandchildren, "Gaga" was an "all-round Scottish champion". George's creativity was also actively exercised in his sense of humour. He was notorious for catching out innocents not versed in the Johnston humour. A story often told with pride was of the time he advertised and sold a dog for $5 ONO. This dog was not just any old dog. It was a very rare specimen of Haggis Hound -- the sort that could be trained to spot and point at haggises flying overhead. Perhaps the only person who could outdo George's wicked sense of humour was his wife and life partner, Aileen. They first met at night school in Elgin when he was 14, and she was 15. Even though Aileen said she felt like a cradle snatcher, the moment she saw him she said: 'Yes, I'll have that one." Seventy years, and many miles later, they were still together. Aileen has her own place in the hearts of many people on the Darling Downs, and still teaches yoga after 30 years. Mixing a little yoga, Scottish philosophy, and "a little of what you like", Aileen helped George turn the initial prognosis of "three months at the most" into 11 months. She cared for George in their home until he died peacefully on December 11. While George Alexander Johnston will be sadly missed by his family and friends, this inventor created a life that will remain in our hearts and stories forever. Printed in "The Chronicle," Toowoomba, 18 December 2000.

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