HOOD RIVER — Hood River native Phil Jensen has died at the age of 87. The former owner and president of Luhr Jensen and Sons Inc. passed away on Nov. 5 in Florence, Ore., where he and wife Judy have lived for the past few years.
Though he was perhaps best known in conjunction with his family’s fishing lure company, Jensen was an active member of the Hood River community. He was a longtime Heritage Council board member and benefactor of The History Museum of Hood River County and was instrumental in opening the Luhr Jensen and Sons Memorial Exhibit in August 2013. He was also a longtime supporter of the Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital Foundation and The Next Door, Inc. (he and Judy were named The Next Door’s 2019 Philanthropists of the Year), a founding board member of the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation (1983), an inductee to the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (2009) — and periodic columnist for the Hood River News.
Jensen, the youngest son of Luhr Sr. and Clarice Jensen, joined the family business in 1960. He was the last surviving member of his immediate family, which included four siblings. He wrote about his father and the origins Luhr Jensen and Sons in a special section of the Hood River News that ran Oct. 29, 2008:
“In 1929, a wonderful disaster occurred: The Depression closed the sawmill [at Dee]. The apples and pears went unsold. Bills were unpaid and there was a young and growing family to feed,” Jensen wrote. “The farm was sold and the bills were paid. Luhr and family moved ‘downstream’ to the small town of Hood River, smack on the Columbia and the fishing paradise he loved so much …
“Luhr had a fishing friend who was skilled in metal tooling,” he continued. “Using available materials at the time (mostly old car parts), they fashioned small dies that could press out the spinner blade shapes that they designed. Using a crank down press, Luhr pressed out the blades, one by one, then hand polished and assembled them with a small pair of specially shaped pliers. Faceted glass beads from Czechoslovakia and a Norwegian hook with red feathers completed these fancy little fish-getters.”
About himself, he wrote: “In 1960, Luhr Sr. and Clarice’s youngest son, Phillip, joined the firm. Fresh from the University of Oregon with a degree in marketing, a wife and three more young mouths to feed, it was time for another growth spurt for the company. The ‘Sons’ part of the company was now complete, with all three boys now ‘on board.’”
The business stayed in the family until 2005, when it was sold to Finnish outdoors company Rapala. Luhr Sr.’s lures are now manufactured all over the world.
A reception and celebration of life will be held for Jensen on Saturday, Dec. 9 beginning at 1 p.m. at Anderson’s Tribute Center, 1401 Belmont Ave., Hood River. The family requests donations to The Next Door Inc. For Jensen’s full obituary, see page A7.
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