SR0389 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0389 LRB101 06612 ALS 57657 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Henry Lueders Henderson, who passed away on November 5, 2018 at the age of 66; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson was born in Granite City on May 5, 1952; he grew up in a heavily industrialized area of the town, where he and his friends found they could light on fire the water that seeped into basements after storms; that experience, along with many days spent at the Field Museum and a summer at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, pushed him toward a career of protecting the environment and public health; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and theology from Kenyon College in 1974; he then studied in England, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford University; in 1976, he moved to Chicago and completed coursework for a doctorate at the University of Chicago; after finding himself drawn more to politics and law, he moved to St. Louis and earned a law degree at Washington University in 1982; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson worked in the City of Chicago's law department, where he focused on environmental issues; he served as the staff director of Mayor Harold Washington's Shoreline Protection Commission in the late 1980s; after taking office in 1989, former Mayor Richard M. Daley selected him to be the first environment Commissioner for the City of Chicago; in this role, he helped launch the city's blue-bag recycling program, helped shut down illegal garbage dumps, and oversaw the Chicago Brownfields Initiative, an effort to clean up abandoned industrial sites; he also helped lead the fight to preserve the North Park Village Nature Center and proposed stiffer fines and jail time for companies caught dumping construction waste in residential areas; and

WHEREAS, According to Richard M. Daley, Henry Henderson was a "great leader during a vital time in Chicago's history"; he also noted, "Henry proved to be instrumental in the environmental movement here, long before other cities were acknowledging the need for such initiatives"; and

WHEREAS, After leaving the City's Department of the Environment in 1998, Henry Henderson joined the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago as a senior fellow in an environmentally-oriented research and administrative post; he left UIC to start his own firm, Policy Solutions Ltd., and later served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Illinois, again focusing on the environment; and

WHEREAS, In 2007, Henry Henderson was tapped to serve as the director for the newly-opened Midwest office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York City-based international nonprofit environmental advocacy group; according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in that role Henderson's time "was spent holding polluters, governments, and City Hall accountable"; Mayor Emanuel also noted that "Chicagoans and all Midwesterners owe a debt of gratitude to Henry for his leadership and service"; and

WHEREAS, United States Senator Dick Durbin stated, "Without Henry and his dogged work at NRDC, we would have never been as successful at addressing manganese pollution in Southeast Chicago or taking on contamination issues from BP Whiting"; he also noted, "His dedication to leaving this planet better and cleaner for the next generation will be long remembered"; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson created the Chicago Greencorps, a job-training program that turned vacant lots into community gardens and built planter medians around the City; he felt strongly that to build a sustainable community, the most vulnerable populations had to be better served; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson will be remembered as an architect of Illinois's Future Energy Jobs Act, one of the most aggressive state-led climate efforts in the nation, and as one of the loudest and most persistent voices calling for the resuscitation of the Chicago River; under his leadership, NRDC initiated a lawsuit that forced water regulators to stop dumping water rife with human waste into the river; this cleanup effort precipitated the development of the Chicago Riverwalk; and

WHEREAS, Henry Henderson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; his sons, James and Ben; and his sister, Ann Tonks; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Henry Lueders Henderson and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Henry Henderson as an expression of our deepest sympathy.