BY FRAN PRUYN, CPSM LEGENDS When did you decide to become an architect? When I was four years old, I was playing in the sandbox and making houses, and my playmate, Patty, made a house that looked like an anthill. I had a little butter knife, and I carved it and shaped it into a form. My mother was looking out the window and said, “Tommy, are you going to be an architect?” I said, “What’s an architect?” “They design buildings.” And I thought, “Yeah.” Then in kindergarten, when people were drawing pictures of trees and clouds and puppies, I drew a picture of the nearby building. When we had scrapbooks, I would make houses and build things. It’s what I always wanted to be, and I’m too stubborn. You can’t persuade me not to. Talk about going to school to become an architect. I went to Cornell University in New York. A neighbor’s older brother had gone there and said it was the best school. My counselor even said, “Don’t go there; you’ll never make it.” Well, I’m stubborn, so I had to do it. Wisconsin, where I was from, didn’t have a school. I was accepted at Cornell. I think I got in on a prayer. I wasn’t the top of my class, but I was involved in a lot of things. I was president of the class, I was a drum major and I was in the band, orchestra and student council. Cornell was a tough school, and a lot of kids were from prep schools in the East. They were very good at the liberal arts. I struggled in the liberal arts, and there were points where I wanted to quit. But somehow, I did very well in the design architecture program. My father literally went bankrupt after my first year. It’s an expensive school. He had money, but then he lost it all. He said I couldn’t go back. And I said, “I am going back.” He said, “You can’t, there’s no money.” I said, “I’m going to do it.” See, I’m stubborn. So, I went back. I used some money that I had saved to go on an LDS mission. I got through my second year, but I had to wash dishes, wait on tables, cut grass and clean gutters. A lot of my friends who were very rich were traveling to the Alps for a Christmas vacation, and I was taking a Greyhound bus home or hitchhiking. It taught me work, and it was a good experience. It was painful, but even painful things teach you how to overcome difficulties. It taught me to question, to be a critical thinker, to be more analytical and to challenge things. Tom Jensen, AIA 14 REFLEXION
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