Dick Jenssen (1935-2024)

Artist Dick Jenssen, 88, also known in fandom as Ditmar, died March 7, 2024. Jensen was active in Australian fandom for many years, and was a prolific fan and cover artist. Australia’s annual achievement awards, the Ditmars, are named after him. He won the 2016 Rotsler Award for his artwork in fanzines.

Martin James Ditmar Jenssen was born in 1935, and was a part of Australian fandom since 1952, when he was a founder member of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club. Of those who formed the original club, Bob McCubbin, Lee Harding, Race Mathews, Merv Binns, and Dick, only Race Mathews is still alive.

Dick’s career as a meteorologist was distinguished. He was head of Meteorology at Melbourne University when he took early retirement at the age of 55. Only recently did we discover that he performed the analysis and wrote the program to produce the first computer-generated weather forecast for the Southern hemisphere.

Dick gafiated from fandom after 1971. However, in 1993, Race Mathews enticed him into rejoining a group of his old fannish friends (and some younger, like us) for watching movies and dinner once a month. As mentor and friend, he also adopted my wife Elaine Cochrane and me as people to whom he could natter about anything, especially science fiction, science, books, and movies.

Dick drew artwork for the MSFC’s fanzines in the early 1950s, but did not take up this interest again until computer graphics developed rapidly during the 1990s. Dick contributed a large number of cover graphics to fanzines and book publishers from then until 2020, especially covers for my SF Commentary and Bill Wright’s Interstellar Ramjet Scoop. He was very delighted to win two Ditmar Awards for Best Fan Artist.

He has suffered major health problems in recent years, at first very severe arthritis, and then cancer during the last four years. After each period of hospitalisation, he has been able to return to his flat. However, recently it became very difficult for him to walk at all, so with vast amounts of help from Elaine, as his power of attorney, he had moved to the Grace Villa aged care facility near us. His health has deteriorated greatly during the last two months, and he died in his sleep this morning. His life has been well spent, of great value to all those who have known him or been helped by him.

Yesterday Elaine arranged the transfer of his vast library to our place. Thanks very much to those who put a huge amount of effort into this move: Carey Handfield, Justin Ackroyd, Murray MacLachlan, Rob Gerrand, and Gladys Williams.

—Bruce Gillespie