C. Peter Jorgensen

TUNBRIDGE - C. Peter Jorgensen died at his home in Tunbridge on Sept. 25, 2009, at age 68.

Jorgensen moved to Tunbridge, where he and his wife had a vacation home since 1971, in 1993. He was an Orange County deputy sheriff and member of the town's Trustees of Public Funds at the time of his death.

He was formerly a nationally certified EMT with First Branch Ambulance & Rescue, Tunbridge Volunteer Fire Department member, selectman and chairman of the town's E-911 Committee. He financed the Tunbridge junk car lotteries and started and supported the first Tunbridge town Web site.

Jorgensen was a native of Medford, Mass., and grew up in nearby Arlington where he and his wife Kathryn, a Boston University journalism master's program classmate, bought The Arlington Advocate in 1969.

When they sold their company, Century Publications, in 1986 they were publishing six suburban weekly newspapers. In the mid-1970s, Jorgensen was also president of New England Publishers Inc., which published the Hardwick Gazette and Bradford Journal Opinion, as well as two newspapers in New Hampshire. He also published The Commercial and Financial Chronicle in New York City, which he bought in 1973.

In 1986, he and his wife started Historical Publications, which now publishes The Artilleryman, a quarterly magazine he founded in 1978; Civil War News, a current events newspaper started in 1988; and Fire Apparatus, a national fire service industry magazine Jorgensen started in 1996.

He owned Firetec Apparatus Sales from 1996 to 2002 and served on the Fire and Emergency Manufacturers and Services Association board of directors from 1998 to 2001.

During his journalism career Jorgensen received the Golden Quill Editorial Award from the International Conference of Weekly Newspaper Editors for the best editorial of 1972 and a variety of regional and national press awards for editorial writing and photography.

He was a director of several state, regional and national press associations, was on the board of New England Television Corp. and WHDH-TV Inc. in Boston, and a board member and early organizer of Boston's Fourth of July Inc., host of the Boston Pops Esplanade concerts.

Jorgensen was a dedicated first responder and carried his own jump kit and defibrillator. A highlight of his career came in May 2003 near Winchester, Va., when he revived a collapsed man with his defibrillator.

For the past several years he was percussionist for the annual Tunbridge Civic Club variety show, playing a solo on his "wrench-a-phone." He also worked two years in the print shop for the Tunbridge World's Fair.

His varied interests and collections included military history, especially Civil War and World War II books and art, photography, John Deere tractors, bamboo fly rods, Civil War artifacts, antique newspapers and Mack fire trucks. He loaned a fire truck to the Chelsea and Tunbridge fire departments and garaged a filled tanker truck for fire suppression needs on Monarch Hill Road.

Jorgensen was a member of the 34th Battalion Virginia Cavalry of the North-South Skirmish Association, competing in carbine, musket, revolver, cannon and mortar events.

He was an authority on Civil War field artillery, at one time having a large collection of 3-inch projectiles and cannons, one of which he fired at the Tunbridge Memorial Day service.

Jorgensen was a graduate of Arlington High School and held an associate in arts degree and bachelor of science and master of science degrees in journalism from Boston University. He was born Nov. 25, 1940, to Carl H. and Margaret (McGrath) Jorgensen. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, of Tunbridge, whom he married Oct. 23, 1965; brother Robert M. Jorgensen of San Diego, Calif.; sister, Sandra M. Jorgensen of Waterboro, Maine; and two nephews.

The funeral will be Saturday, Oct. 3, at 12 p.m. at the Tunbridge Church followed by a committal service and party, both at his 234 Monarch Hill Road home.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Tunbridge Public Library, PO Box 9, Tunbridge VT 05077; the Tunbridge Church, c/o Townsend Swayze, 56 Swayze Rd., Tunbridge VT 05077; or the Civil War Preservation Trust, 1331 H. St. NW, Suite 1001, Washington, DC 20005-4761.

Boardway & Cilley Funeral Home of Chelsea, Vt., is handling arrangements.