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When Dale Jensen found out one of his favorite Lincoln restaurants, Jax Shack, was for sale, he took action.

"He went home and got his checkbook and he bought it," said Jim Pittenger, a Lincoln financial adviser who was a longtime friend of Jensen's.

Pittenger said that's the kind of person Jensen was: impulsive but also extremely generous.

"He was a force of nature, and I'm pleased to have known him," he said.

Jensen, who co-founded what could be considered Lincoln's first tech startup company, died recently in Arizona, where he had lived for nearly 30 years. He was 75.

The cause was cancer, according to a from a Phoenix-area company he helped found.

Jensen grew up in Lincoln and graduated from Pius X High School in 1968. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but didn't graduate. Still, after getting a job as a computer programmer at National Bank of Commerce, Jensen worked his way up to become the bank's youngest vice president at the age of 23.

Then one day in 1976 he resigned to start his own company with coworker Don Dillon.

The company they founded, Information Technology Inc., developed computer software for smaller banks, something only larger banks were using at the time.

The company grew to more than 200 employees and $100 million in revenue, and in 1995, the pair sold it to Fiserv Inc. for $373 million.

Dillon stayed involved with the company after the sale, but Jensen took his cut and moved to Phoenix for what was supposed to be early retirement.

That didn't last long, however, and Jensen invested in numerous business ventures, including becoming a majority owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team and a part owner of the Phoenix Suns.

"Dale had a heart of gold and cared deeply for this community and our team. He invested in our franchise because he knew the importance and impact it would make on Arizona," Ken Kendrick,ÌýDiamondbacks managing general partner, and Derrick Hall, president, CEO and general partner, said in a joint statement. "And he was a critical contributor to the financial and business plan that this team has been successfully delivering. We will miss him deeply and are in mourning with his beautiful family."

Jensen sold his interest in the Diamondbacks in 2010.

His latest venture in his adopted home was an online marketplace for real estate investors called SVN SFRhub Marketplace.

"Dale was an original co-founder who took a new idea and proudly created advanced technology for a first-in-industry national investment rental home portfolio platform, much like he did in the banking industry in the ’70s and ’80s," the company said in the blog post announcing Jensen's death.

"We deeply mourn this incomprehensible loss for his family, the team, and the industry."

Though he hadn't lived in Lincoln for nearly 30 years, Jensen's name is still well known around the city.

You can see it in Jensen Park, an under-development park in southeast Lincoln near 84th Street and Yankee Hill Road.

Jensen also stayed involved with UNL, endowing numerous teaching chairs, including one at the School of Computing at the College of Engineering.

One of Jensen's great loves was golf, and he was an investor in both the Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln and the Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen.

He told the Journal Star in a 2004 profile that he wouldn't do business with anyone unless he either golfed, or had dinner with the person, because people's character flaws tend to reveal themselves in those two situations.

Another of Jensen's loves, especially in his younger days, was flying. At one point, he was certified to fly a Citation business jet solo.

He also put that love of aviation to work, spending several years as a member of the Lincoln Airport Authority.

Pittenger said he initially met Jensen as part of a group excursion to a Husker bowl game in Miami and they became lifelong friends thanks to a number of shared interests, including fishing, computers and Nebraska football.

"Dale was a very aggressive personality," he said, "and if he decided he liked you, you didn't have much to say about it."

Jensen's large circle of friends included plenty of famous ones, too, including former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason and rocker Alice Cooper, with whom Jensen sometimes hung out with on tour.

"He made an awful lot of friends that were high-dollar people," Pittenger said, "but he carried his own weight."

Jensen is survived by his wife, Vicki; sons Chris Jensen and Kenny Peake; his brother, Ross; several grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

Funeral services are scheduled for Jan. 24 at noon at St. Thomas of the Apostle Church in Phoenix.