PAUL & KAMMA JENSEN
Paul Jensen was born in Svengborg, Denmark. At the age of 13 he went to sea as a merchant seaman and when World War I broke out he was the Chief Electrician on the S/S California. When the ship was drafted as a troop transport Paul’s services were needed however he was a Dane. While the ship was being transformed into a troop transport he was naturalized and given a commission as a First Lieutenant in the U S Navy.
After World War I he studied Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City and went to work for Brown Instrument Company.
In 1928 Brown sent Paul to Aruba to install instruments in the new refinery being built there. He stayed in the “sheepsheds” which were wooden barracks for the construction personnel that were built like the sheep sheds of Wyoming.
Within a year Paul left Brown Instrument and went to work of Standard Oil of Indiana, the company building the refinery.
In 1929 his wife, Kamma, who was also from Svengborg, Denmark came to Aruba and they moved into Bungalow 252 where they lived until they retired in 1957. When Kamma arrived in Aruba there was no fresh water piped to the houses, only brackish water. She had to take a container and go to a standpipe at the end of the row and fill it with fresh water for cooking, drinking and as she said, brushing her teeth. She said there were only 5 other foreign staff wives living in the Colony when she arrived but within a very short time there were over 50.
In 1938 Paul and Kamma had a son, Arthur Daniel, aka:
Danny
or Dan
CLICK ON THE PHOTO RIGHT TO FOLLOW LINK TO DAN TODAY.
Paul and Kamma retired in 1957 and moved to the island of St. Croix in the U. S. Virgin Islands.
Paul, Kamma and Danny Jensen on the patio at Bungalow 252.
Danny is wearing BLUE BELLS. Link and then see Commissary Story.
Left, Paul and Kamma Jensen with Nonie in front of Bungalow 252 before World War II.
Below, Kamma on her Snipe before World War II
