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SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3learn of the death of Henry Lueders Henderson, who passed away
4on November 5, 2018 at the age of 66; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson was born in Granite City on May 5,
61952; he grew up in a heavily industrialized area of the town,
7where he and his friends found they could light on fire the
8water that seeped into basements after storms; that experience,
9along with many days spent at the Field Museum and a summer at
10the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, pushed him
11toward a career of protecting the environment and public
12health; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson earned a bachelor's degree in
14philosophy and theology from Kenyon College in 1974; he then
15studied in England, where he earned a master's degree in
16philosophy from Oxford University; in 1976, he moved to Chicago
17and completed coursework for a doctorate at the University of
18Chicago; after finding himself drawn more to politics and law,
19he moved to St. Louis and earned a law degree at Washington
20University in 1982; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson worked in the City of Chicago's
22law department, where he focused on environmental issues; he

 

 

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1served as the staff director of Mayor Harold Washington's
2Shoreline Protection Commission in the late 1980s; after taking
3office in 1989, former Mayor Richard M. Daley selected him to
4be the first environment Commissioner for the City of Chicago;
5in this role, he helped launch the city's blue-bag recycling
6program, helped shut down illegal garbage dumps, and oversaw
7the Chicago Brownfields Initiative, an effort to clean up
8abandoned industrial sites; he also helped lead the fight to
9preserve the North Park Village Nature Center and proposed
10stiffer fines and jail time for companies caught dumping
11construction waste in residential areas; and
 
12    WHEREAS, According to Richard M. Daley, Henry Henderson was
13a "great leader during a vital time in Chicago's history"; he
14also noted, "Henry proved to be instrumental in the
15environmental movement here, long before other cities were
16acknowledging the need for such initiatives"; and
 
17    WHEREAS, After leaving the City's Department of the
18Environment in 1998, Henry Henderson joined the Great Cities
19Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago as a senior
20fellow in an environmentally-oriented research and
21administrative post; he left UIC to start his own firm, Policy
22Solutions Ltd., and later served as an assistant attorney
23general for the State of Illinois, again focusing on the
24environment; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 2007, Henry Henderson was tapped to serve as
2the director for the newly-opened Midwest office of the Natural
3Resources Defense Council, a New York City-based international
4nonprofit environmental advocacy group; according to Mayor
5Rahm Emanuel, in that role Henderson's time "was spent holding
6polluters, governments, and City Hall accountable"; Mayor
7Emanuel also noted that "Chicagoans and all Midwesterners owe a
8debt of gratitude to Henry for his leadership and service"; and
 
9    WHEREAS, United States Senator Dick Durbin stated,
10"Without Henry and his dogged work at NRDC, we would have never
11been as successful at addressing manganese pollution in
12Southeast Chicago or taking on contamination issues from BP
13Whiting"; he also noted, "His dedication to leaving this planet
14better and cleaner for the next generation will be long
15remembered"; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson created the Chicago Greencorps, a
17job-training program that turned vacant lots into community
18gardens and built planter medians around the City; he felt
19strongly that to build a sustainable community, the most
20vulnerable populations had to be better served; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson will be remembered as an architect
22of Illinois's Future Energy Jobs Act, one of the most

 

 

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1aggressive state-led climate efforts in the nation, and as one
2of the loudest and most persistent voices calling for the
3resuscitation of the Chicago River; under his leadership, NRDC
4initiated a lawsuit that forced water regulators to stop
5dumping water rife with human waste into the river; this
6cleanup effort precipitated the development of the Chicago
7Riverwalk; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Henry Henderson is survived by his wife,
9Jacqueline; his sons, James and Ben; and his sister, Ann Tonks;
10therefore, be it
 
11    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL
12ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of
13Henry Lueders Henderson and extend our sincere condolences to
14his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it
15further
 
16    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
17presented to the family of Henry Henderson as an expression of
18our deepest sympathy.