George Charles Henrich

George Charles Henrich, 86, of Virginia Beach, VA, passed away on December 11, 2019. George, or Chuck as he was known to family and friends, was born in Philadelphia, PA and was the son of John C. and Sylvia P. Henrich, both deceased.

Chuck grew up in West Philadelphia and attended the Henry C. Lea Elementary School. He was fortunate enough to win a citywide competition and was awarded a four-year scholarship to the William Penn Charter School. At about this time, the family moved to Havertown, a suburb of Philadelphia, where they remained through Chuck's college years.

He attended Penn State University, Ogontz Center, for one year and then transferred to Roanoke College in Salem, VA. While at Roanoke, he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, serving as Treasurer for three years. It was at Roanoke College that he met and fell in love with Helen Dunn of Charleston, WV, who also became Sweetheart of Sigma Chi. Chuck graduated from Roanoke in 1955 with a BA in Economics and Business Administration. After graduation, Chuck returned to the Jack and Jill ice cream company where he had worked for the previous two summers, thinking there would be a short time before he was drafted. Summer passed with no word from the Army, so he went looking for a "real job," and was accepted as a sales trainee by the Burroughs Corporation in October of 1955.

In November, Chuck became engaged to Helen, but with the Army to be faced, it was difficult to begin to plan a wedding. In December, Chuck received a letter to report for his physical, which he passed, and now each evening when he returned from work, he looked for the dreaded letter to report for duty. Finally, in February of 1956, unable to move forward with his life, he volunteered for the draft, and within ten days was on his way to Fort Jackson, SC, for processing.

Fourteen days later, he was sent to Fort Carson, CO, for basic training with the understanding he would be heading for Germany when it was completed. Chuck and Helen were married in August, and shortly thereafter Chuck was on his way to Germany, followed shortly by Helen. They spent a wonderful year in Germany, taking advantage of the opportunity to travel as much as possible, returning in November of 1957.

Chuck transferred to Roanoke, VA, with Burroughs and began his sales career in earnest. He moved through the positions of sales representative, zone sales manager, district production manager, branch manager, and district education manager. His next opportunity involved a transfer to Detroit, MI, the corporate headquarters of Burroughs, but after eleven moves in 22 years, he decided to continue his career elsewhere. His greatest joy with Burroughs was seeing the success of young people he trained become successful on their careers.

In 1980, he and Helen moved to Virginia Beach where he would work for a software company for three years, and then went to work at Computerland, or "play school" as he referred to it since it was so much fun to be in on the ground floor of the personal computer revolution. After five fun years at Computerland, he joined C&T Associates where he continued his selling career until his retirement.

Chuck and Helen had two sons, Charles Patrick of Winston-Salem, NC, and John Andrew, who sadly pre-deceased both parents. Check and Helen moved to Westminster Canterbury on the Bay in 2005, where they have both been active in the retirement community. There will be a memorial service in the Chapel at Westminster Canterbury on Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 11:00am. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Westminster Canterbury Fellowship Foundation or to Roanoke College, Salem, VA.