Wednesday, September 14, 2022
In the early 1990s Henry and other members of the Service Club of Glastonbury joined with the Land Heritage Coalition of Glastonbury as co-sponsors of the annual Nayaug Canoe and Kayak Race. Soon, the groups found that planning the race was a year-long process, so we decided to meet each week for breakfast at Ken’s Restaurant in Glastonbury center. The breakfasts turned into social events when we spent a few minutes on race planning and the remainder on friendly disagreements, gossip, and sharing of important facts. Hank had an encyclopedic knowledge of almost anything so was always ready to answer a question about new tax laws, the latest cell phones, and, in later years, what phone apps were best. Thanks to Henry, I feel confident that my mobile phone knows where all the world’s ships at sea are located, what flights have been held up in Seattle, and how I can figure out where a hidden radio transmitter is located.
Finding a hidden radio transmitter is an exercise that Hank enjoyed as a ham radio operator. He was an avid member of the BEARS of Manchester, the local amateur radio club. Henry got the BEARS to set up emergency radio service at the Nayaug Canoe Race just as they do each year at the Manchester Road Race. Henry was a real “techie” and he got onto the personal computer bandwagon early on. At our breakfasts he shared stories of his first computer (a Radio Shack model) and his later PCs. He was familiar with computer languages and the worldwide web, and he became the Land Heritage Coalition’s webmaster when he joined the LHC board. The current lhcglastonbury.org website is his work.
At one of our breakfasts, Henry found out that I had been a ham operator as a teenager. After I retired, he urged me to take the FCC licensing exams and to become an active ham again. We shared this interest and would often exchange information about our latest radio contacts or the latest high-tech gear. He was especially proud of a new antenna he put up about a year ago, and he called excitedly when his first radio contact was with an amateur operator in Croatia.
Hank was involved in many Glastonbury organizations and had a wide range of friends who will feel the loss of his easy going nature, generosity and ready smile. We depended on his encyclopedic knowledge about resources in the community. He loved his home town and devoted his life to community service.
