Ted Jorgensen

Theodore John Jorgensen Jr. (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 when Jeff was seventeen months old. After the separation, Jorgensen agreed to not contact either of them.

Jorgensen owned a bicycle shop in Glendale, Arizona, and was married to his second wife, Linda. In 2012, journalist Brad Stone informed Jorgensen that his biological son was an e-commerce billionaire, something Stone had discovered while doing research for his book, The Everything Store. Jorgensen died in 2015.

Early life and circus career Theodore John Jorgensen Jr. was born into a Baptist family in in Chicago and grew up with his younger brother Gordon. His paternal grandfather was a Danish veteran of the Spanish-American War. After his father took a purchasing job at Sandia National Laboratories, the family moved to Bernalillo, New Mexico, while the boys were in elementary school.

As a teenager and young adult, Jorgensen was both a hobby and professional unicyclist, competing in unicycle hockey as part of the Albuquerque Unicycle Club,

He became vice president of the club in 1959, won the club's award for "most versatile rider" in 1961 and took over as club president in 1962.

On 16 and 17 February 1963, he was part of the Unicycle Wranglers circus troupe that performed at the Greater New Mexico Sports Show at the Tingley Coliseum. He also performed for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and, in 1965, for the Rude Brothers Circus. They named the child Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen at birth. He supplemented his circus income by working at the Globe department store while studying at the University of New Mexico. His academic fees were paid by Gise's father, who also worked with Jorgensen's father at Sandia. Gise left Jorgensen to live with her parents, filing for divorce in June 1965 when Jeff was seventeen months old.

Later life and death In his twenties, Jorgensen moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, to open a bicycle shop, before moving to Tucson, Arizona. In 1972, he was struck in the face with a stick while being robbed, breaking his jaw. to Glendale, Arizona. One year after learning who his son was, Jorgensen had not reconnected with Bezos. In 2014, he spoke on Inside Edition about his desire to apologize to Bezos. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 16, 2015, aged 70.