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Techniques for CollectorsIn Memorium: William Arthur Henderson Jr.

25th Apr 2014 21:45 UTCJoe Mulvey

On Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014 the micromounting world lost a giant. William A. Henderson Jr. passed away after a long period of declining health surrounded by his loving family.

Both Bill and his wonderful wife Audrey were physicians who had many discoveries and patents during their illustrious careers.

Together they were avid field collectors who took frequent road trips with the Webers and other mineralogical illuminati during the golden years of micromounting in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Bill was a prolific writer for the Mineralogical Record. Many of us were first introduced to Bill when he filled in as a guest columnist to Vi Anderson in her regular Micromounts article in the Mineralogical Record. Later he took the helm with photos of interesting specimens obtained through his frequent swaps around the globe. Bill was the first speaker at the original Micromounters of New England Symposium in 1982.

From my meetings and correspondence with Bill, his favorite studies included the minerals created from Roman slag on the coasts of Italy and Greece where new minerals formed as a result of the combination of seawater and the roasting of ores to extract metals hundreds of years ago. He also enjoyed the mineralogy of the Palabora Mine in South Africa.

Bill may have been most respected for his knowledge, experience and skill in the identification and study of the minerals of Mont St. Hilaire.

Bill’s expertise in crystallography was formidable. He built his own equipment to measure the angles of crystals under a microscope (one circle goniometer). He used many techniques and kept copious notes in his endeavors to identify unknown minerals.

Bill was recognized for his life time of work when he had a mineral named for him – willhendersonite. Bill was inducted into the Micromounters Hall of Fame for the year 1997. Bill was also awarded a lifetime membership to the Micromounters of New England for his contributions to mineralogy.

Bill’s autobiography for the 2008 Micromounters of New England Symposium

About Today’s Featured Speaker: Bill Henderson

After graduation, I attended Yale University, where I obtained my M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry. My thesis was on the electrophylicity of carbenes, a newly discovered class of organic compounds. I will not dwell on my graduate school years, except to say that they were the most miserable of my whole life.

With my Ph.D. in hand, I moved the short distance from Yale to Stamford, Connecticut, where I began work as an organic chemist for the Central Research Department of American Cyanamid Company. Within a couple of years, I was married to Audrey, another chemist, and within two more years, we built our first house in North Stamford.

I spent 37 years at Cyanamid, the first 17 in the same room, working as a bench chemist the whole time. Management did not appeal to me since, with my severe hearing loss, dealing with others, especially in groups, was and is extremely difficult. Besides, chemicals behave better than people! The whole experience was enjoyable and interesting since, every year or so, I had to learn a completely new area of chemistry.

As a result of this, I produced papers and patents in fields as varied as: the nucleophilicity of phosphines; a sunburn dosimeter which tells one when to get out of the sun; adhesives for fiberglass insulation; stickum for grinding wheels; hydroxamated polymers for use as set retarders for cement; reversibly photochromic imaging systems; the synthesis of tetraalkylcyclo-polyphosphines; photostabilizers for sheep dip and high impact, rubber reinforced polymers; photosensitizers for generation of singlet oxygen; light activated herbicides; nucleophilic decay rate modifiers for polymeric implants; the world's first patent for chemiluminescent immunoassays; the synthesis of primary aralkyl urethanes; thermal stabilizers for miticides; and many others.

During this time, I was the first chemist to earn Cyanamid's Scientific Achievement Award (for finishing three projects in one year), the first to win it a second time, and the first appointed to Cyanamid's Scientific Ladder (positions equivalent in remuneration and status to ones in management).

Audrey and I had the satisfaction over the years of raising two successful and happily married children, and are blessed with four grandchildren, two of whom speak Japanese and two Italian, as well as English. We now have a mini-dynasty of Harvard grads; my great uncle (1888), aunt (1926), father (1928); myself (1954); and our two children, Amy ((1962) and Bill III (1965).

My greatest passion since Harvard days has been mineralogy. My specialty is micro- minerals, ones showing well formed crystals which require 15-60x magnification to be studied. I have some 14,000 of these, each in its own little, plastic mausoleum. Another 20,000-30,000 lie in the cellar waiting to be exchanged with collectors around the world. Early on, I taught myself to use a polarizing microscope to identify the little creatures, and with it, discovered my namesake mineral, willhendersonite. For decades, I have written articles for mineralogical journals, and authored a column for the Mineralogical Record. I have more publications in mineralogy than in chemistry. I also enjoy giving talks on mineralogy, and (once) gave a university course in geology for beginning earth science teachers.

Other hobbies enjoyed with my wife are bird watching, canoeing, hiking, reading, woodworking, traveling (Kenya, Japan, England, Italy, Switzerland, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica), vegetable and flower gardening, and propagating azaleas (480 grown and planted).

All in all, I would say that Audrey and I have been most fortunate, have experienced productive and happy years, and look forward to more.

27th Apr 2014 13:15 UTCVandall Thomas King Manager

Very sad news. I first met Bill in 1967. Do you have more vital information (birth data and year and place of birth, place of death, etc.) for the willhendersonite page? Do you have a better photograph than is publishged?

27th Apr 2014 18:02 UTCJoe Mulvey

Sorry, I don't have those details.

Here is a picture from the 2008 Micromounters of New England Annual Symposium where president Michael Swanson (l) recognized Bill's work with the club Lifetime Achievement Award.

Best Regards,

Joe

29th Apr 2014 16:44 UTCLászló Horváth Manager

It is indeed very sad news. Although he could be a fiercely competitive collector on the blast piles at MSH, he was a very nice and generous person and a very good friend. Bill was one of the few collectors who invested a lot of his time to try to identify what he found, mostly by optics, and he became a very accomplished optical mineralogist.

Our condolences to Audrey and family.

29th Apr 2014 21:46 UTCJoe Mulvey

HENDERSON, WILLIAM ARTHUR, JR. William Arthur Henderson Jr. passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday, in the sunny Madison home he loved.

Bill, 81, was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1932, son of the late William and Hannah (McMann) Henderson.

Despite severely impaired hearing, Bill earned a BA from Harvard in 1954 and an MS and PhD in organic chemistry from Yale in 1958.

He spent his entire career at American Cyanamid in Stamford, held over 20 chemistry patents, was named an Associate Research Fellow, and twice received Cyanamid’s prestigious Scientific Achievement Award.

Bill leaves behind his adoring wife, Audrey Tesch Henderson, herself a chemist. For nearly 54 years, they shared a beautiful, peaceful home, numerous hobbies, and a deep love of family. Bill is survived by his daughter, Amy Joy Henderson, and her husband, Luigi Bergomi, of Ardsley, NY; and by his son, William Arthur Henderson III, and his wife, Masumi Sakakibara Henderson, of Hillsborough, NJ. He was a very proud, loving grandfather to Elena and Lorenzo Bergomi and William IV and Andrew Henderson. Bill also leaves behind his brother, R. James Henderson, his wife Maryfaith, and a niece, Kathryn Henderson, of Massachusetts.

Bill loved nature; his hobbies included bird-watching, fly fishing, and gardening. He was a skilled woodworker, tenderly crafting many pieces of furniture and sets of Shaker boxes for family and friends. He was also an avid mineral collector with an extensive collection, and for many years wrote a bimonthly column for Mineralogical Record magazine. Bill frequently helped professional mineralogists by sending them specimens of interesting, possibly new, minerals, one of which was ultimately named willhendersonite, in his honor.

In 1990 Bill retired to Madison, and he loved this area, particularly enjoying walks at Chatfield Hollow and Hammonassett. He was a longtime member of the Madison Winter Club. Most importantly, Bill was a wonderful man—fiercely intelligent, enormously funny, deeply principled, and endlessly kind—a quiet, strong gentleman, who will be sorely missed, but lovingly remembered. A gathering of family and friends will be held later this spring among the gorgeous azaleas he and Audrey propagated and planted around their home.

Bill’s family wishes to thank the staff of Strong House in Madison for the joy they gave him last year, and the nurses, therapists, and aides of Middlesex Hospice and Palliative Care for the kind and gentle support they provided during the past two months. Arrangements are with the Hawley Lincoln Memorial, Guilford.

To sign the online guest book, please visit hawleylincolnmemorial.com. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?n=william-arthur-henderson&pid=170807724#sthash.x6HuIIJN.dpuf

30th Apr 2014 01:02 UTCVandall Thomas King Manager

Thank you! Do you have a photo that is about 1 megabyte? Your phot as posted is only 38 kilobytes and won't be accepted as a valid upload because it is so small.

22nd Oct 2014 15:21 UTCJoe Mulvey

How is this? Bill Henderson picture

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