Hal P. Christensen

Written by Alice Christensen & Heather Christensen Smith

Our father is a great man. His love is expansive like a fountain that flows through his family, friends, acquaintances and strangers. The amazing thing about love is that it only grows, it never runs out. When someone like our father loves, the effect of his love makes the love greater, vaster and more expansive. If love could have saved our father, he would have lived for ever, for that is how much love he had in his life.

Hal Christensen was born in Glendale, California on April 30th, 1949, the third of four sons, to Frances and Howard Christensen. In his childhood he moved from Glendale to Sunnyvale to Salt Lake City and then back to Sunnyvale. He always told us he was his Mom’s favorite, he was the one that helped her cook and vacuum. He loved his mother dearly and was overly loyal and protective of her through her life. His childhood was full of adventures, with airplanes being built in the backyard by our grandfather, camping trips to Lake Powell, waterskiing, snow skiing, road trips, fishing, hunting and cowboying in the Eastern Sierras.

In his early twenties his adventurous spirit took him further afield. He sailed across the Indian Ocean stopping over in the Seychelles where he met our mother Sally, before continuing to eastern and southern Africa. He eventually settled in Singapore and then Kenya where he was an ocean-going tug boat captain. In 1982 he became a Santa Barbara resident, a place that he cherished for its weather and beauty. He founded his own business, Rocket Vending Service which has been a successful local business since 1989.

Dad was an avid skier throughout his life and was always one with the mountain; he enjoyed skiing in California and Utah.
Dad loved his family infinitely – his wife Kathy Christensen, us (his daughters Heather Christensen Smith and Alice Christensen), son-in-law, Taylor Smith. He was blessed with his first granddaughter, Rowan Olivia Smith, last year. Hal has many friends around the world that have been instrumental in his life and are also his family.

Dad would not consider himself an intellectual yet he taught us all so much by the grace and spirit that he lived his life. Incredibly generous, thoughtful and selfless, he made us all better people by simply living the life the way he did. We love you Dad! Thanks for being the best father we could have ever asked for.

We ask that instead of flowers, donations are made to the Eastern Sierra Land Trust. The Eastern Sierra Land Trust is dedicated to preserving land including a piece overlooking Crowley Lake which has great significance not only to Hal but to the Christensen Family.