Corliss Jensen was a giant in the Medford community
Corliss Jensen left the world better than he found it.
Of all the epitaphs for a man who was truly a giant in both the local community and in the legal profession in Wisconsin, there is perhaps no better one than that.
Corliss Jensen died Sunday morning. He was 98 years old.
In a 2015 article Jensen quoted his former law partner Frank Nikolay, “You know I have retired when you see the hearse backed up to my office.”
Throughout his life Jensen was a builder. Not the type that lays bricks or nails boards, but the type who lays foundations upon which entire communities are built. Throughout his long life Jensen worked in many roles and opened doors of opportunity for growth in the community.
Jensen grew up in the Dorchester area. His parents farmed in the town of Mayville in Clark County and he worked beside them until leaving for military service in 1943.
As any farmer knows, the chores have to get done and the work never truly stops. A childhood spent milking cows, shoveling manure, pumping water from the well and picking cucumbers to sell helped shape Jensen’s world view and set the foundation for his future endeavors.
In his time in military service, Jensen had the opportunity for higher education and getting out of the navy in 1947, he took advantage of the GI Bill at first pursuing accounting, but after taking a constitutional law class, fell in love with the law and never turned back.
Jack Nikolay talked Jensen into coming back to Central Wisconsin and going into partnership with him forming the basis of what is now Jensen, Scott, Grunewald and Shiffler law firm. Jensen remained active in the firm serving as a resource and mentor for other attorneys. His longtime law partner Bill Grunewald would often half-joke that Jensen had forgotten more law than most lawyers will ever know in their careers.
Beyond serving the legal needs of the business community, Jensenwasinvolvedinthebusinesscommunity as a business leader including at one time being a part of a group that owned The Star News. He got involved with the Industrial Development Foundation (now called the Medford Area Development Foundation). It is in this area that his legacy as a community builder began to be formed.
“What drives a community is employment,” Jensen said in a 2015 interview with The Star News. “You have to have jobs for them to come here and to stay here.”
To that end, Jensen played a major role in helping bring Marathon Cheese to Medford and working with Mayor Ray Blakslee and his legal partner Ray Scott to help lay the groundwork in the 1950s to bring a new hospital to Medford, that would eventually become Aspirus Medford Hospital and Clinics. Development efforts continued with the community benefitting greatly from Weather Shield’s growth here as well and the major impact of local employers such as Nestlé Pizza all helped with the behind the scenes work of Jensen and other giants from that generation of community leaders. He was likewise instrumental in the recreational life of the community as one of the founders of Black River Country Club.
Jensen learned the value of hard work at a young age and continued to work hard throughout his life. He worked to build his business, his family and his community, laying the foundations for generations of leaders to follow.
Jensen’s life and career are the very definition of stewardship, working each day to make the community better for those who come after him.
Jensen will be missed.
