David Jorgensen died at home on August 16, 2023, surrounded by his loving family. He had battled cancers for the last several years: the legacy of his beloved pipe. David is survived by his wife Judy; his daughters Kathryn (Jonathan) Iwamasa, Holly (Jeff) Vetor, and Sylvia Havnen; his grandchildren Sofie, Jabari, Josef, Austin, Colin, Magdalen, Natalia, and Jakob; and many cousins, nieces, nephews, and corresponding greats.
David was the son of Danish immigrants Carl and Sigrid Jorgensen. He was born in Detroit, MI, eleven years after the birth of his sister, Esther. His parents created their own extended family in the United States with four other Danish immigrant couples. This “unofficial” Danish family was a huge part of David’s childhood, the children of those couples were his US cousins. Since his parents both came from large families, he also had many, many cousins in Denmark. For many years after his retirement, he and Judy made annual pilgrimages to Denmark to visit them all.
David’s heroes included Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist. So it was no surprise that he obtained degrees in Physics: a Bachelor’s Degree from Oakland University and a Masters from Wayne State University. Once, in student housing at Wayne, he met a woman who had never seen a cockroach. Always interested in broadening others’ horizons, he quickly pointed out, "there’s one now!” And through this atypical introduction (“we met over a cockroach,” she says), he and Judy began a loving, inquisitive, joyful, and hilarious union that included their 57-year marriage. Their anniversary is August 19th.
Early in their marriage, David and Judy were met with tragedy. While they were expecting their first child, David’s father died. Shortly after Carl’s death, David’s beloved sister Esther was diagnosed with cancer. She had five beautiful children: Julia, Lisa, Tommy, Adrian, and Karen. For the next year, David and Judy drove out every week to care for Esther and the kids. They didn’t hesitate to share their love and care.
David and Judy also shared a love of music. They raised their daughters in a musical home–surrounding them with folk, classical, and jazz. Family vacations included sing-a-longs in the van. David was a huge jazz fan, and an important family tradition was attending the Detroit Jazz Festival.
David’s first job while completing his master’s degree was at Pershing High School in Detroit where he taught physics and math. After a few years of teaching, he changed direction and took a job at Ford Motor Company as an engineer, or as he called it, a “technical maintenance man.” In 1980, he accepted a job teaching high school physics at the Copenhagen International School for a year. He and Judy moved their family to Denmark. The wonderful year in Denmark allowed them all to know his Danish family. After the year in Copenhagen, he returned to Ford and remained with the company through many changes, including the transition to Visteon toward the end of his career. He retired in 1997.
David lived for what Richard Feynman called “the pleasure of finding things out.” But David took that one step further and into the joy of experiencing how things work and enthusiastically sharing this joy with everyone. From a young age, he was a scientific and engineering explorer.
During his retirement, he found he had WAY too much free time on his hands, and developed a deeper interest in astronomy and joined the University Lowbrow Astronomers. He also used his engineering skills for various private projects (aka shenanigans), such as building a potato gun with his son-in-law, which included sensors to measure the speed of the potato as it exited the 6-foot-long barrel.
David and Judy planted a half-acre garden for most of their marriage and were strategically protective of their crops. David installed an electric fence 18 inches high to keep the raccoons out of the sweet corn. The fence also played a role in one of David’s favorite party tricks: lighting up a fluorescent bulb with the fence charge. He may have, once or twice, invited unsuspecting friends and family to take his hand while he held the other end of the bulb–surprising them with a shock as they completed the circuit.
Always an explosion enthusiast, in his later life, he maintained some semblance of safety by confining his explosion extravaganza to an annual fourth of July fireworks display, with his safety helmet and blowtorch. Despite the mosquitoes, the fireworks were enjoyed by all. Such was the joy and enthusiasm he brought to everything he shared with people in his life.
He was an inspiration to many, and a joy to all who loved him. If you are far away and want to feel closer to him, go out and look at your night sky and soak in the beauty of the cosmos. You know how he loved the stars.
David's family will receive friends on Sunday, August 20, 2023, from 2-5pm at Cole Funeral Chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you donate to Faith in Action in Chelsea.
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