David D. Henry Sr.

Founder of the African Scholarship Program of American Universities and the Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities, died peacefully at home on June, 27th. David Henry was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1919. He graduated from Harvard College in 1941. He served in the United States Navy in the Pacific from 1941 until the end of the War. After six years of teaching English and American History at Hotchkiss and Pomfret preparatory schools, he returned to Harvard in 1951, where he spent ten years as the Director of Admissions, followed by ten years as Director of the Office of International Students. In 1960, while Director of Admissions, David Henry began the African Scholarship Program of American Universities (ASPAU), which brought students to study at more than two hundred and fifty selective American colleges and universities. He traveled widely in Africa during the 1960's and was committed to expanding the educational resources of that continent's newly independent nations. The success of ASPAU led in turn to a similar program for Latin America (LASPU), which he founded in 1964. He was devoted to his advisees and maintained contact with many of them for decades. In time, his grandchildren turned to him for counsel on their college careers. David Henry had a beautiful baritone voice and was a skilled pianist, avid gardener, spellbinding raconteur, and accomplished woodsman. He deeply loved the Province of Nova Scotia, its wild lakes and rivers, and especially its southwestern coast, where he built a summer home in 1951. Later, he lived in and enjoyed greatly his homes in the Mount Washington Valley and Casco Bay. With exuberance and generosity of spirit, David embraced friends and his family, inviting one and all to join in rousing choruses from Gilbert and Sullivan, long summer sails, fierce games of cribbage, baking extravaganzas, erudite literary or political conversations. Despite the progressive inroads of Alzheimer's over recent years, David carried on with grace, kindness, and humor, often raising his voice in song. David D. Henry, Sr. is survived by his wife of sixteen years, Randy Henry, his brother Richard Henry of Seattle, WA, his sister Phyllis Stevens of Cambridge, MA, his daughter Margaret Henry of London, England, his son D. Dickinson Henry, Jr. of Concord, NH, and four grandchildren Caleb Henry Smith, Hannah Henry Smith, MacHenry, and David D. Henry, III, and nephew, David Ehrenpreis of Harrison, VA. His first wife, Marie Curnen, died in 1977 and his second wife, Barbara Rockwell in 1991. There will be a celebration of David Henry's life at the St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 885 Shore Road, Cape Elizabeth, ME on Tuesday, July 1st at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the Tin Mountain Conservation Center, P.O. Box 1170, Conway, NH 03818.