Ted Jorgensen

Ted Jorgensen
Jorgensen c. 1962
Born	Theodore Jorgensen (1944-10-10)October 10, 1944 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	March 16, 2015(2015-03-16) (aged 70)
Alma mater	University of New Mexico
Occupations	Unicycle hockey player entrepreneur
Employers	Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Globe Store
Organization(s)	Albuquerque Unicycle Club (President, 1962)
Spouses	Jackie Bezos ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1965)​ Linda Jorgensen ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	5[a], including Jeff Bezos

Theodore Jorgensen (October 10, 1944 – March 16, 2015) was an American unicycle hockey player, the president of the world's first unicycle hockey club, and a bicycle shop owner-operator. He was the biological father of e‑commerce magnate Jeff Bezos.

Jorgensen was born in Chicago to a Danish-American family that moved to Albuquerque when he was a teenager. Jorgensen was a unicyclist who performed at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and in 1962 became the president of Albuquerque Unicycle Club, the world's first unicycle hockey club. He married Jackie Gise in 1963 and fathered Jeff with her in 1964, before divorcing her when Jeff was seventeen months old. After the separation, Jorgensen agreed to not contact either of them.

Jorgensen lived with heart issues in his later life, ran a bicycle shop in Glendale, Arizona, and was married to his new wife, Linda. In 2012, journalist Brad Stone informed Jorgensen that his biological son was an e-commerce billionaire, something he had discovered while researching for his book The Everything Store. Jorgensen died in 2015.
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