Morten Christian Jorgensen, Sr. was born on January 2, 1907, in Århus, Arhus, Denmark, to Otto Jørgensen, 31, and Claudine Elisabet Vadumine Storm, 32. He married Estelle Marion Starke on December 23, 1931, and had two children, Morten, Jr. (who, as an adult, changed the spelling of his name to “Morton”) and Shirley. He worked for Ostergaard Aircraft as a general aircraft mechanic, performing engine overhauls, gilder construction, and propeller making for four years. He also maintained and repaired ships owned and operated by the Tech Flying Club Inc., and served as a pilot for the Civil Air Patrol, California Wing. Mort, Sr. died on July 13, 1990, in San Diego County, California.

Dr. Morton Jorgensen, Jr. was born in 1933 and grew up in San Diego, California. As a young boy in the late 1940s-early 1950s, he followed in his father’s footsteps and served as a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol, and was based at Gibbs Airport in El Cajon (Gillespie Field) where Bill Gibbs was his commanding officer. Mort graduated from San Diego High School in 1951 (he served as president of the San Diego High School Alumni Association in 1975 which had just formed that year), studied Chemistry at San Diego State, and pursued an MD at UCLA’s School of Medicine. He put himself through college by working at Convair as an aircraft assembler, and then later as a chemist. Mort received his surgical training in the U.S. Navy at Bethesda Navy Hospital and served in Vietnam and surgical support on recovery carriers for the Apollo Space Program. 

He retired as a captain and entered private practice of general and peripheral vascular surgery in San Diego. Mort married Hermione Orpen (Noni) on January 26, 1985 in San Diego. He has been a part of the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s board and is past president of several community groups including San Diego Rotary Club, Boys Clubs of San Diego, and San Diego Society of General Surgery. For ten years, Mort was associated with the Museum as a docent, a Board Secretary, and Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committees.

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide.