Even after retiring the favorite leather jacket he wore as a young man, Thorwald "Tory" Esbensen retained the passionate, sometimes rebellious spirit of his youth.
Esbensen, an educator and innovator whose career took him to the Pacific, Duluth and the Twin Cities, was known from an early age as a person of high conscience who encouraged people to follow their dreams.
"The flowing water will always win against a stubborn rock, as long as it flows long enough," he would say.
Esbensen died in his sleep on June 4 in Yuma, Ariz., of respiratory failure. He was 88.
Thorwald Esbensen was born Sept. 15, 1923, in Eagle River, Wis., the youngest of three sons of George and Edith Esbensen.
He majored in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and chose a path in education, determined to make a difference in the world around him.
He worked as a teacher, principal, administrator, professor and even as a school bus driver.
He was hired by the U.S. military in 1951 as an English teacher in the Pacific Islands. A couple of years later, he returned to Wisconsin, where he married Barbara Juster, who would have a distinguished career of her own as a teacher and author. The family returned to the South Pacific in 1956.
