Industry Loses Fire-Protection Pioneer Rolf Jensen

The M/E engineering community experienced a big loss last month with the passing of fire-protection pioneer Rolf W. Jensen, P.E.

Throughout his professional career of over 50 years, Jensen achieved many notable accomplishments including: founding his own fire-protection and code consulting firm, Rolf Jensen & Associates; chairing Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's expert panel assembled to investigate the 1969 McCormick Place fire; presenting some 125 papers; and serving as an officer for the National Fire Protection Association's Board of Directors and for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

After graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1951 with a B.S. in fire protection and safety engineering, Jensen spent the early part of his career with Underwriters Laboratories and then served as a professor and chairman of IIT's department of fire protection and safety engineering.

In 1969, Jensen founded and began building his firm, which eventually became a prominent industry player designing fire-protection systems for a variety of facilities including universities, museums, convention centers and high-rise buildings.

Consequently, he served on the Chicago Committee on High Rise Buildings—the city's advisory committee on building code amendments—and also lent his expertise on panels investigating Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel fire in 1980, as well as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Jensen, who passed away at the age of 73 after a short illness, is survived by his wife of 52 years, Lorraine, six children and seven grandchildren.