Heinz K. Henisch

Heinz K. Henisch April 21, 1922 -March 21, 2006 Heinz Henisch moved with ease in the three worlds of Central Europe, Britain and America. Circumstance and character taught him how to sense connections, and so his professional careers in physics and in photo-history were built quite separately, and yet were linked together by a thousand tiny threads. He was a man of cool brain and warm heart, who was fired by the excitement of new ventures and steadied by the sustaining comfort of tradition. Serious and witty, he had an inexhaustible supply of good jokes and an endearing weakness for really bad ones. He enjoyed the company of small children and small wild creatures, and kept a special corner in his heart for chipmunks. One of his great pleasures was to sit round a candle-lit table with good friends, good food and wine, and talk and laugh the hours away. He was Research Professor Emeritus of the History of Photography in the Department of Art History, PSU. The author of 11 books and some 150 research papers, he lectured widely in this country, in Europe, in Taiwan, and in Latin America. In 1976, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and soon afterwards a Fellow of the American Photographic Historical Society. He came to the Pennsylvania State University in 1963, having previously taught at the University of Reading, UK, which awarded him two doctorates, a Ph.D in 1949 and a D.Sc. in 1979, both in physics. From 1977 to 1990, he served as Founder-Editor of "History Photography," an international research journal published by Taylor and Francis of London, and widely acknowledged as the most distinguished scholarly publication in this field. At Penn State, Dr. Henisch also held the parallel rank of Professor of Physics. In his capacity as a scientist, he co-founded and edited (1966-1994) the "Materials Research Bulletin" (Pergamon Press-Elsevier Oxford, UK), He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, London. His most recent physics books were "Semiconductor Contacts" (1984, Oxford), "Crystals in Gels and Liesegang Rings" (1988, Cambridge), and "Periodic Precipitation" (1991, Pergamon, Oxford). His 1976 "Crystal Growth in Gels" (Penn State Press), has been re-issued as a Dover paperback. Dr. Henisch was responsible for the establishment of graduate studies in Photo-History at Penn State, in 1973. Early in 1996, the holdings of the B. and H. Henisch Photo-History Collection were transferred to the Special Collections of the Pattee-Paterno Library. Pattee Room 201A serves as a permanent display area. In partnership with his wife, he wrote three books, all published by the Penn State Press: "The Photographic Experience" (1993), "The Painted Photograph" (1996), and "Positive Pleasures" (1998). This trilogy was followed by "The Photographic World and Humour of Cuthbert Bede" (Mellen, 2002). The two partners also served as guest-curators of a major photo-history exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art in 1988, and an exhibition of Dr. Henisch's own photographs was held at the HUB Formal Gallery, University Park, Aug. - Sept., 1989. Two books have been published in honor of Dr. Henisch and his work in both fields in which he was active: "Shadow and Substance," edited by Dr. K. Collins (1990), and "Disorder and Order in the Solid State," edited by Pryor, Schwartz and Ovshinsky (1988). Heinz Henisch retired from Penn State in Aug. 1993. His "First Dance in Karlsbad" (1993), a small volume of childhood memories, was published in a German version (1996), and in Czech (2000). With his wife he wrote "Chipmunk Portrait" (Carnation Press, 1970), a book for which he also made the photographs. Friends will be received on Thursday, March 30, 2006, from 4 to 5 p.m., at the Koch Funeral Home, 2401 S. Atherton St., State College.