Steven Edward Hengen

1949 - 2016

Steven Edward Hengen, 67, died Tuesday night, Dec. 20, 2016, at The Birches; the cause was frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with which he was diagnosed in 2011. Steve was born on Aug. 7, 1949, in Richmond Hill (Queens), New York City. His parents, Erwin O. and Meta (Steenken) Hengen, immigrated to the United States as adventurous young adults in in the early 1920s; neither ever saw their parents again. Erwin left a prominent family from Speyer and traded higher education for work as a bookbinder in New York City, followed by the Ford assembly line in Detroit, where he simultaneously learned English and the skills of a tool and die maker. He met his future wife on a return visit to New York; she had arrived as a 17-year-old to work as a governess for a distant relative. Erwin spent the remainder of his working life as a route salesman for Drake Bakeries. Both parents ensured their three sons received strong educations.

On full scholarships, Steve graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy (1967) and Harvard College (1971). He spent the following year at Emmanuel College in Cambridge, England, as the recipient of the Lionel de Jersey Harvard Scholarship. Upon his return to the United States, he entered the joint degree program for law and business at Harvard, receiving both a JD and MBA in 1976.

He spent seven years practicing law at Foley, Hoag & Eliot in Boston before relocating to Concord with his wife, Liz, in 1983, where he joined Ransmeier & Spellman and specialized in medical defense litigation and employment and labor law for more than 20 years.

Steve served terms as president of the boards of the Merrimack County Bar Association, Concord Public Library and Concord Public Library Foundation, as well as vice-president of the Concord Food Co-op. For a number of years he coordinated programs for local presentations of the New Hampshire Humanities Council.

A highly intelligent and intellectually curious man, he read widely and was deeply knowledgeable and articulate in diverse fields, including music, history, art, film, poetry, world affairs and wine.  Two items invariably caught the eye of visitors to Steve and Liz's house on Ridge Road: the framed 8 ½', 14th century brass rubbing that Steve spent six hours on his knees creating during his year in England, and the sheer number of books he owned – each one of which he had read and was thoroughly conversant with.

Steve loved to travel. His first solo trip was in his teens, when he worked his way to Europe aboard a freighter ship. During his year in England, he traveled around Spain, Morocco and Greece. Steve and Liz's 'honeymoon' was a summer in Zurich, where he landed a job through his business school connections and fluency in German and French. Once their children could read, the family regularly embarked upon lengthy trips to Europe, focusing on a single country over the course of a month. Once the children were launched, Steve and Liz continued to take extended trips exploring Sicily, northern Italy, eastern Turkey, Spain, Eastern Europe and Peru. And throughout his professional career, which often put him on the road, he never overlooked an opportunity to linger for another day or two to investigate new places. He visited all the national parks and, closer to home, introduced his children to hiking and camping in the White Mountains.

Steve is survived by his wife of 42 years, Elizabeth Durfee Hengen; two children and their spouses, Keith B. Hengen and Catherine A. Pautsch of Somerville, Mass. and Taylor Hengen Newman and Aaron Newman of Seattle; three grandchildren, Kaspar Quincy Newman, Otto Apollo Newman and Charles "Chase" Pautsch Hengen; a brother, Gerald Hengen of Lloyd Harbor, Long Island; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and a brother, Ronald Hengen, in 2006.

The family extends especial gratitude to the exceptional staff at The Birches, where he had been living for the past two years, and to his incomparable doctor, BJ Entwisle. Steve's brain was donated to MGH for analysis by his FTD neurologist, Brad Dickerson.

A memorial service will be held in late January.

In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting the Concord Library Foundation or the Mass General Department of Neurology to further research in FTD.