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SALINA - A loving family man, a prankster with a permanent smile and, with his last breath, an unassuming hero who gave his life trying to help others.

That is how Gary "Gibb" Jensen, who perished Aug. 16 while tunneling to reach six trapped miners in Emery County's Crandall Canyon mine, was remembered Wednesday at his funeral in Salina and burial in nearby Redmond, the Sevier County hamlet where he lived.

"He was also a [Oakland] Raiders fan," joked his brother, Neal Jensen, to about 800 people attending the service, including U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. "But we'll find it in our hearts to forgive you."

During the two-hour-long service at an LDS stake center in this central Utah town, family and friends painted the 53-year-old Jensen as a man who, besides adoring his wife and their four children and grandchildren, was dedicated to his work as a safety inspector for the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Chao said he exemplified the best qualities of MSHA workers by never hesitating to risk his own life to help save another. "He reaffirmed what is best in the human heart," Chao said. "Like those at 9/11, he rushed in, a selfless hero, to help others. He is the best the country has to offer."

Daniel Jones, a regional leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, read a letter from church President Gordon B. Hinckley and his top counselor, Thomas S. Monson, to Jensen's wife, Lola, and family.

"He leaves behind a legacy of service to God and his fellow man," Jones read.

Jensen died when tunnel walls exploded while he and other rescuers were laboring to reach six miners trapped in an Aug. 6 mine collapse.

Also killed were Dale Black, 48, who was buried Tuesday in Huntington, and Brandon Kimber, 29, who will have a public viewing tonight in Moab and a private burial there later.

On Wednesday, Neal Jensen told funeral-goers, including Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., that his brother planned to attend a mining-rescue contest next week in Tennessee. When MSHA organizers heard of his death, they decided to name the top award the Gary Jensen Memorial Trophy.

Neal Jensen also said it was no secret his brother had a wild streak when he was young.

"He quit the wild side of life because he wanted his family," his brother said. "The most important thing to him was to be a good dad. All he talked about was his kids."

John Fredrick echoed the tug family held on his fallen friend.

"He could not stand the thought of those trapped miners and that they could not get back to their families," Fredrick said. "He was a hero his whole life. Always in the back of the room, he hid from praise. But he'll have to take it now. We'll never know how many accidents and fatalities were prevented because of him."

Fredrick remembers Jensen saving his life once, pulling him back in a mine just before a roof collapsed. "So he'll always be my hero."

Jensen also was a "master of the practical joke," Fredrick said. He would sabotage drinking cups and slip feminine hygiene products into the shopping carts of his male friends.

At a Price restaurant one night, Jensen had a birthday cake delivered to his table.

"It wasn't even my birthday," said Fredrick, who decided to eat the cake anyway. When Fredrick went to pay his check, he added, "the cake was on my bill."

It is customary for miners to spray off the coal dust when they exit a mine. Sometimes Jensen would shut off the hot water just as Fredrick tried to rinse the lather from his hair.

"I never caught him, but I knew it was Gibb," Fredrick said. "He loved to make people laugh."

Jensen's four children also paid tribute to their father.

"He always called me his baby," said adolescent daughter Hayley Jensen. "He said I will always be [his] baby daughter."

She also said that whenever her dad tackled a home-improvement project, it took him three trips to the hardware store. "Once for the part he needed, a second time for the one he forgot and a third time for the one that was right."

Daughter Amy Shelley, who lives in North Carolina, said every time her father traveled back East for business, he went out of his way to visit her and his grandchildren.

"He always used to have a pocket full of shiny pebbles to hand out to kids, and he collected hats he also passed out," she said. "He always made sure his grandkids had a treat from him before he left."

Robbie Jensen said his father had three priorities when it came to mine rescues.

"Safety, rescue the survivors and recovery of the mine," said his son. "But his first priority in life was his family, and he taught the principle he lived by: Honor your mother, father and elders. He also helped the community with things like the Little League he started that helped so many. He lived for the people and died for the people."

Another son, Dustin Jensen, talked of the long hunting trips the two shared.

"It would take until 10 or 11 a.m. to get out of town because he had to stop and visit people," Dustin Jensen said. "But we had long talks and enjoyed each other's company."

Before the funeral began, hundreds of mourners filed past a table filled with mementos, including pictures of him with hunting dog Maddy, granddaughter Megan catching her first fish and some colleagues holding trophies from a mine-rescue competition.

MSHA Director Richard Stickler viewed the keepsakes.

"He [Jensen] was a true mining professional," Stickler said. "He was doing his best, looking after the safety of miners and making sure things were being done right."

One of the most poignant tributes, a framed poem penned by one of his children, read in part:

To me, my dad's a hero

Though he'd turn away the praise.

He's heroic in his quiet strength

And his gentle giving ways.