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Ted Jorgensen

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

Ted Jorgensen
File:Ted Jorgensen on a unicycle.jpgTed Jorgensen on a unicycle.jpg Ted Jorgensen on a unicycle.jpg
Jorgensen c. 1962
BornTheodore Jorgensen
1943 or 1944
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
March 16, 2015
(aged 71)March 16, 2015
(aged 71)
🎓 Alma materUniversity of New Mexico
💼 Occupation
Unicycle hockey player, entrepreneur
👔 EmployerRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Globe Store
🏢 OrganizationAlbuquerque Unicycle Club (President, 1962)
👩 Spouse(s)Jackie Gise (married 1963–1965)
Linda Jorgenson (married c. 1988–d.)
👶 Children1 biological (Jeff Bezos)
4 stepsons

Theodore Jorgensen (1943/4–March 16, 2015), commonly known as Ted Jorgensen, was an American unicycle hockey player, the president of the world's first unicycle hockey club, the biological father of e-commerce magnate Jeff Bezos, and a bicycle shop owner-operator.

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 was the president of the world's first unicycle hockey club. He divorced Jeff's mother seventeen months after she gave birth to their son in 1964. Jorgensen agreed to not contact either of them.

In 2012, journalist Brad Stone informed Jorgensen who his son was, something he had discovered while researching for his book The Everything Store.

Early life

Jorgensen was born into a Baptist family in 1943 or 1944 (age 81–82)[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 Albuquerque, New Mexico, while the boys were in elementary school.[2]

Circus career

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

In high school, Jorgensen dated Jackie Gise. She fell 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 Store while studying at the University of New Mexico, with academic fees being paid by Gise's father, who also worked with Jorgensen's father at 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 discontinue contact, to which he agreed,[1] relinquishing custody.[11]

Later life and death

In his twenties, Jorgensen moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, to open a bicycle shop, before moving to Tucson, Arizona. In 1972, he was stuck 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 pervious partner.[13] Jorgensen's stepsons Darin and Todd Fala both worked helped at his bicycle repair shop.[13]

In 2012,[10] journalist and author Brad Stone contacted Jorgensen after identifying him as billionaire Jeff Bezos' 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 apologise to Jeff Bezos.[11]

Jorgensen lived with heart problems and emphysema.[15] He died on March 16, 2015,[16] aged 71.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Barr, Alistair (10 October 2013). "Bike shop owner discovers he's father of Amazon founder". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Brad Stone, (2013). The Everything Store. United States: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-21926-6
  3. ↑ Steven Ellis (13 March 2021) The Weird, Wild and Wacky World Of Unicycle Hockey Archived 2022-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, The Hockey News
  4. ↑ Unicyclists Name Slate Archived 2023-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, Albuquerque Tribune, March 26, 1959 Page 41
  5. ↑ "Unicycle Club Plans Dinner". Albuquerque Tribune. 25 March 1961. p. 8. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  6. ↑ "Unicycle Club Plans Banquet". Albuquerque Tribune. 27 March 1962. p. 20. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  7. ↑ "Unicyclists On Program". Albuquerque Tribune. 15 February 1963. pp. B-11. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  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. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Stone, Brad (2013-10-10). "The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 2022-12-16. Retrieved 2023-03-27. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "How Bike Shop Owner Discovered He Was Jeff Bezos' Dad". Inside Edition. January 2014. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  12. ↑ Rasmussen, Benjamin (27 March 2013). "Ted Jorgensen, Biological Father of Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos". Getty Images. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Giblin, Paul. "Estranged father mum on Amazon CEO". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 2020-03-18. Retrieved 2023-03-28. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  14. ↑ Author Finds Bezos' Biological Dad Archived 2023-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, Burlington Times-News, October 13, 2013 Page 28
  15. ↑ Stone, Brad (13 October 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 27 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  16. ↑ Janseen, Kim (20 Feb 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 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-03-27. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  17. ↑ McDowell, Erin (12 January 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 6 July 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2023. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)


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