The Christensen Fund regrets to announce the recent passing of Carmen Christensen, who co-founded this foundation with her late husband Allan Christensen in 1957. Carmen was an artist and an unusual and dynamic figure (see one of her Obituaries below) with particular interests in the arts and education, and deep philanthropic engagements beyond the Christensen Fund itself. She died at 96 good years of age. Two of Carmen’s daughters remain involved with the Fund; Diane serves as our Board President, and Karen, while not serving on the Board itself, retains designator status and a deep interest in our mission. We send our sincere condolences to the family, and acknowledge with deep gratitude her further bequest to us.
Obituary from Salt Lake City Newspaper
CARMEN MORTON CHRISTENSEN
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 14, 1913, Carmen Morton Christensen passed away quietly in her home in Atherton, California on February 26, after a 15 year period of care in her home following a major stroke. An artist, pianist, interior decorator, homemaker and philanthropist, in her later years she took particular pleasure in her charitable activities and was able to contribute in a major way, individually and through the Christensen Fund, the private foundation she co-founded with her husband Allen D Christensen in 1957, to a number of local, national and international projects and causes.
The middle of three children born to SLC physician Thomas Fincher Harry Morton and Nellie Morton nee Pettit of Salt Lake City, Utah, Carmen’s given name was the result of her mother going into labor during a performance of the Bizet opera. Her parents were the children of Mormon pioneers and met as members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Thomas had studied medicine in Philadelphia and, after a return to Salt Lake City, had a long-time practice there as a family doctor and surgeon, in retirement around 1950 settling with wife Nellie in Coronado, California where their son, Paul Morton, had established a medical practice following his service in the Navy during WWII. Her sister, Betty Mower, later settled there too. Carmen was the last of the three siblings to pass on.
Married to Allen Derbidge Christensen in Salt Lake City in the late 1930s and raised in the house across the street from his family home, as the little sister of older brother Paul she enjoyed joining the boys in building early Marconi radios, constructing ice igloos during winter, and stealing cherries from neighbors’ trees, where, being small, she was adept at climbing to the highest branches. She was an enthusiastic roller skater around the State Capital Building during her childhood, continuing this activity into her 50s to the sometime embarrassment of her children. Before her marriage, Carmen received her B.A. from the University of Utah by the age of 19 and later a master’s degree in fine arts and performance piano from the University of California at Berkeley. Her husband Allen received both his bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering at Stanford. Carmen taught high school art, in her first job teaching sometimes recalcitrant 18-year-olds only a year or so older than herself. She subsequently spent several rewarding years teaching second-graders in the Salt Lake City public school system, where she was noted for the pastel portraits she created of her students. A talented artist, she continued her painting and drawing through much of her life.
Carmen and Allen moved to California after World War II, because of the relocation of the headquarters of Utah Construction Company, later Utah International. In the post-war years in California, she engaged in volunteer work teaching art classes to veterans and the elderly, bred Kerry Blue terriers, and became an interior decorator. A skilled and enthusiastic gardener in California, she frequently appeared in her smock with seedlings in trays and a trowel in hand, twigs in her hair and garden soil smudging her face. She is survived by three children, two born in Salt Lake City and the third in California.
In later life, Carmen and her husband became collectors of European and especially Asian art, loaning pieces to California and Utah museums and travelling widely together to Asia and Europe. Carmen’s special passions included art education, especially for children, along with the support of museum exhibitions and public education in the arts. As a former teacher, she was enthusiastic about assisting students, at all academic levels, through donations to schools and colleges as well as providing personal support for several to complete their university studies. She and her husband were strong supporters of arts-related institutions, and after her husband’s death in 1989, in the 1990s Carmen became the earliest major supporter of the Stanford University Art Museum (reborn as the Cantor for the Arts) -- her name is now inscribed above its main entrance. She also supported, among other things, the University museum, its medical school and its art department. After her stroke in 1995, her example and clear intentions led her trustees to continue to support the causes that she had always embraced.
Together with her husband, Carmen had co-founded in the 1950s the Christensen Fund, a private foundation originally dedicated to support of the visual arts and now focusing its grantmaking internationally on biological and cultural diversity in a number of regions around the globe. Carmen has remained a strong supporter of the Fund throughout her life and has left it the major portion of her estate as a bequest.
An active, energetic and independent woman, Carmen had passionate opinions and a great heart. Many will miss her. She leaves behind her three children and five grandchildren in California. The family hopes that all who note her passing will remember her passion for life and her positive outlook, honoring her wish to be remembered with joy rather than sorrow. A private celebration of her life will take place in the coming weeks, in a lovely garden filled with bloom. Many will miss her.
