Member

Henry was from Moline, Illinois. He was born in 1916. He earned his BS and MS degrees from the University of Utah and a PhD degree in zoology from the University of Kansas. He served in the Army during World War II and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1947. Henry joined the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History in 1948 as an assistant mammal curator, associate curator in 1954, and became its curator in 1969. He held this position until his retirement in 1978. During his years with the museum, he collected and catalogued small mammals on expeditions to Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. He was an authority on the small mammals of South Africa. The gerbil, Gerbillurus setzeri, was named for him. Henry was a charter member and King Lion of the Germantown, Maryland, Lions Club and a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason and master of Pentalpha Masonic Lodge in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He was married to Elizabeth Freeman from California for 41 years and had four daughters and four grandchildren. He died in Gainesville, Florida, on October 12, 1992, following a heart attack. He was elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1952.