Friends and acquaintances of Wayne Gensmer always had the same question for the man with a great smile and the confidence to back it up. "How many businesses did you start?" The answer was a lot.
From the old Henry's Hamburger joint that he built into a 32-franchise chain to a cosmetic painting business to becoming one of the original investors in the Bearpath Golf and Country Club in Eden Prairie, Gensmer parlayed his ingenuity and creativity into starting up innovative enterprises.
"He had tremendous drive and work ethic," said his wife, Barbara. "He was a great salesman."
Gensmer, 89, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Sunday at his home in Edina.
He lettered in basketball and baseball at Minneapolis South High School, graduating in 1944. He then headed to the Navy, where he was a storekeeper on the island of Guam during World War II. When he returned to Minnesota, he attended tech school and became the youngest salesman for General Foods and McGarvey Coffee.
In the 1960s, he bought into Henry's Hamburgers and ran the home of the 10-cent hamburger with locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin until McDonald's took over the market.
Next up was Senty Enameling, a firm he founded and which grew to employ more than 200 people. The company painted service units for Boeing, computer parts for IBM and Control Data and detailed lawn mower blades for Bloomington-based Toro.
An avid hunter and dog lover, Gensmer founded American Boarding Kennels in Burnsville, a relatively new concept in the mid-1970s. "He knew dogs needed a place to call home away from home when their owners were not present," Barbara said.
