Dale Keith Jensen, Sr., died peacefully at home on November 22, 2024. He was born July 9, 1936, in Odebolt, Iowa to Ann Skeels Kessler Jensen, a performer and teacher of piano, violin, and voice, and Dan Jensen, a Navy veteran and high school band director.
Dale earned his B.A. and M.M.E. at Florida State University and received an N.D.E.A. grant to do doctoral work at U of Miami. While a student, he played flute with the Mobile, Jacksonville and Savannah Symphonies. At FSU, he was president of Phi Mu Alpha and was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi.
Dale began his career in 1958 as high school band director and church choir director in Georgia (Statesboro & Tifton), and then at Broward Community College (Ft. Lauderdale). A job opportunity in 1971 welcomed Dale to Manatee County as music supervisor for public schools. His most notable achievement was ensuring that every public-school student in Manatee County had access to music education. He developed the "Exploratory Wheel," in which every sixth grader got to sing, and play violin, cornet, and clarinet. His program was so successful-resulting in higher music class enrollment countywide-that it was replicated in other districts, with equal success. Further, he saw to it that band, orchestra, and chorus were all offered at every secondary school in the county, and that each student who needed an instrument received one. Dale fought for his fellow music teachers' jobs amid budget cuts that eventually threatened his own job in 1992. He then spent the last six years of his career as orchestra director at Sara Scott Harlee Middle School (Bradenton).
Dale served as president of the Florida Music Supervision Association and the Florida Orchestra Association. He was on the board of several local arts organizations, including the Sarasota POPs, the Manatee County Council for the Arts, Gloria Musicæ, Belle Canto, the Manatee Junior College Wind Ensemble, the Florida West Coast Symphony, and the Manatee Millennium Festival Committee. He was a founding member of the woodwind quintet, I Solisti d'Oneco. He sang in Gloria Musicæ, and the Florida Voices which he later conducted. He was principal flutist in the POPS before becoming conductor in 2002-05.
In 1965, Dale was selected S.T.A.R. Teacher at Tift County High School (Tifton, GA), and the same year received the Ella Scoble Opperman Award in Music Education and Leadership, given by the faculty of the FSU School of Music. In 1984, he was named Friend of the Arts by Sigma Alpha Iota, the national women's music fraternity. And in 2019, Dale was honored by the Manatee Arts Education Council with the creation of a new, annual granted award, the Dale Jensen Music Education Award.
Following in his father and grandfather's footsteps, Dale was also a talented wood worker, who crafted many beautiful cabinets for the family homes he designed and helped build. He constructed four museum-quality cedar strip canoes. And he built pipe chests for the three organs he assembled: for St. George's Episcopal Church (Bradenton), where he was a Vestry Member and Junior Warden; for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (Anna Maria Island); and for his wife-to practice on, at home.
Dale was known and loved for his warmth and goofy sense of humor. He enjoyed the Sunday crossword, tennis, and was most proud of his children and grandchildren making music together. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Barbara (née Basten); his three children, Leah Rumbough (Stanley), D. Keith Jensen, Jr. (Michelle), and Laura Jensen-Jennings (Richard); brothers Richard Jensen and Dan Chris Jensen (Penny); 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Brown & Sons Funeral Homes & Crematory 26th Street Chapel, 5624 26th Street West, Bradenton, FL 34207, is in charge of arrangements.
