Polly Henninger

Henninger, Polly

Polly Henninger passed away July 30, 2013 in her home. She was born and raised in Eagle Rock, California and resided as an adult primarily in Toronto, Canada; Pasadena, California; and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wherever she lived, she was a committed member of singing groups, and religious communities. Peace and justice causes were important to her throughout her life. Her life's work was lived as a neuropsychologist. She examined questions of conscious- ness and the relationship between the hemispheres of the brain, particularly in the study of split-brain subjects and the processing of music in the brain. She attended and received degrees from Pomona College, Indiana University, University of Toronto, and Fuller Seminary. She was proud to have worked in Dr. Sperry's lab at the California Institute of Technology and at Cambridge Hospital, a Harvard University teaching hospital, and to have recently completed a soon to be published chapter on the history of split-brain research.

She delighted when her love of the brain and of spirituality came together in musical worship, particularly in Cambridge at the Society of St. John the Evangelist and in Los Angeles in her church choirs and Gregorian chant group, for which she served as president. She was an active member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Glendale, and had deep affection for that community and the communities of Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, and All Saints' Church, Pasadena. She was an Associate of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, and a member of the American Psychological Association. She is survived by her father and step-mother Paul and Joan Johnson of Santa Barbara; by her sister Rosada Nolan of Ukiah; by her son Nathan Henninger of New York City, and her daughter Rita Henninger Steadman and son-in-law Eric Steadman of Bangor, Maine; by her grandchildren Sonia and Cuddy Steadman, also of Bangor; and by many loving nieces and nephews, and an extended family of cousins. Polly also leaves a vast community of friends across coasts and countries.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, August 10, 2013, at 11 am at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Glendale, 1020 N. Brand Blvd. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the Society of St. John the Evangelist, and the Verdi Chorus.