An NFBCO Auld Lang Syne

A Note from Dan Burke

It’s the start of a new year, and most of us either sang “Auld Lang Syne” very recently or heard it on TV. So, we can allow ourselves a brief look to our past before we launch ourselves fulling into the work of this movement in 2015.

Spending time with Diane McGeorge is always a delight – and often something of a history lesson on the National Federation of the Blind or the Colorado Center for the Blind. Julie and I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Diane not long ago and the conversation eventually hit upon Clifford E. Jensen, President of the NFB of Colorado (then the Colorado Federation of the Blind) from 1961 to 1965. Jensen died before completing his second term as President. Like the late Ray McGeorge, he was a machinist, but a machinist of a special kind.

“Ray really respected Cliff,” Diane told us. “Ray said, ‘I can do a lot (as a machinist), but that man is a genius.’”

Diane’s recollection in turn triggered a recollection for Julie and I. While at the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore for a meeting some time ago, we spent a rare free hour one evening perusing the large collection of Braille books and more in the 4th Floor Conference Room. We ran across an article about a remarkable President of the Colorado affiliate in an early 1960s volume of The Blind American. His name was Cliff Jensen.

The Blind American was published from 1961 to 1964 by the American Brotherhood of the Blind, now called the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. In 2010, the NFB worked with the Internet Archive to digitize these issues, along with all the issues of the Braille Monitor as far back as July 1957, none of which had previously been available in accessible digital formats. Thus, a few days after our visit with Diane, I simply searched the NFB web site for Cliff Jensen to again locate the article in question.

If the old saw is true that we stand on the shoulders of giants, then Cliff Jensen is one of those giants for the blind of Colorado, … and yet …

And yet giants are the stuff of legends and fairy tales, and Cliff Jensen is just an ordinary sort of human being with some extraordinary gifts tinged with the everyday feelings and intentions of most people. As a blind man he was motivated by no better reason than his ordinariness demanded -- and for the best reason of all -- his determination to live the life he wanted. Here’s the article:

BLIND MAN BLUFFS MACHINES

From The Blind American, NOVEMBER ISSUE 1963 , Inkprint Edition

Clifford E. Jensen, recently re-elected president of the Colorado Federation of the Blind, was the recipient of another accolade a short time ago--in the form of an article featuring his personal accomplishments which was published in the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS.

The article, written by staff reporter Wes French, described Jensen as "a 40-year-old machinist who wants his story told for one reason alone--to let people know that blind or otherwise handicapped people can do a full-time job at tasks which for many would be difficult even without a physical handicap."

The newspaper story said that doctors at the University of Colorado Medical Center, "in need of intricate devices and instruments in their teaching and research, turn to one man to produce them. And the man who turns out these items, anywhere from a knurled screw to a huge Rube Goldberg-looking machine, is blind."

Jensen was said to have devised and manufactured dozens of medical and scientific instruments "which previously existed only in the mind of the researcher or teacher who needed a specific tool for a specific need."

An employee of the medical school for the past ten years, Jensen lost his sight through illness in 1955. "I got the usual advice--go home, take it easy for awhile and we'll see what happens," he said.

"But after a month at home I couldn't take it anymore. I have a machine shop in the basement and one day I went down there to find out if I could still work. By taking my time and adapting some of my tools, I was able to turn out as good work as ever," he said.

"I called the medical school and asked if they would give me a chance to go back to work. I was lucky. They were very understanding people and told me to come on in and get to work."

Today in his crowded machine shop at the medical center Jensen operates all manner of complicated machinery--drill presses, lathes, saws and other metal-working tools--all through a well-developed sense of touch, the newspaper reported.

Thanks to a letter from Cliff's wife, Marie, THE BLIND AMERICAN has learned of other "constructive" accomplishments turned out by the state Federation president in his spare time. Among other things, he has built a patio behind the Jensen house, removing a section of the wall and window and installing a double sliding door which he constructed himself (with the aid of Cliff, Junior).

"He has also worked with young Cliff to finish paneling the walls of our mountain cabin which he began long before he lost his sight, and to put the log siding on the outside of the cabin," Mrs. Jensen relates.

"He designed and cut the 'gingerbread' trim that gives our cabin a Swiss chalet appearance, by making a wood and metal jig for his portable power-saw to follow. Now he is preparing to go to Camp Tahosa with the Boy Scout troop for a week of summer camping.”

Between his part-time volunteer labor on home and cabin, his full-time job as head machinist at the university medical center--and his active responsibilities as the head of Colorado's statewide organization of the blind--Cliff Jensen nevertheless finds time to help Marie with the raising of their four children.

Otherwise, he just loafs.