George Henry

Mr. Coe College: George Henry ’49

At the age of 97, George Henry ’49 is still able to tell you the exact location of each photo he took, what was going on at Coe when the photo was taken and who was in the photo. Every detail of his remarkable 67-year Coe College photography career is preserved in the black and white photos he took on campus.

Henry was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, graduated from Franklin Senior High and began his college education at Coe in 1941. “I chose to attend Coe because it was convenient and close to home,” Henry said. World War II was underway when Henry began at Coe, and all male students, including Henry, were required to be ROTC cadets.

In 1943, Henry put his college education on hold and joined the U.S. Army Air Force. Henry served as a B-24 bomber pilot until 1945 when he returned to Coe to finish his bachelor’s degree.

While Henry studied commerce and finance, he also stayed active on campus. He took photos for the yearbook and Cosmos and spent three years studying with his favorite professor, 1914 alum Marvin D. Cone. Henry ran track with Marvin “Marv” Levy ’50 and Charles “Chilly” Hopkins ’49 and helped start a service fraternity.

When Henry graduated in 1949, he never could have imagined he would spend the next 67 years as Coe’s visual historian. “I graduated and never left,” Henry said with a grin. He was able to hone his photography hobby into a career that would serve both him and Coe for almost seven decades.

“So many things happen, and if you don’t record them, they are lost forever,” Henry said.

“I owe a big thank you to Carolyn Schmidt from Coe’s public relations office. She would call me to come take photos on campus,” Henry said. “I would photograph anything they wanted me to. I always said yes first, asked what the assignment was second and figured out how to make it happen third.”

Henry worked with Coe day-by-day and never had an official contract. “Coe is where I knew I belonged,” Henry said. “I never planned anything. All these opportunities came to me and made for an amazing career.”

Throughout his photography career, Henry photographed too many Coe students, teams, graduates, alumni, faculty and presidents to count. He also can’t pinpoint a single favorite photo. “I’ve taken so many, I have 100 or so that are my favorites,” Henry said.

While he can’t pick a favorite, Henry speaks fondly about many of the photos he’s taken. A few of his notable photos are:

Marvin and Winnifred Cone in their home studio — “I almost missed this photo. I actually captured it by accident,” Henry said.

• Marv Levy and George Henry  — “Marv is a wonderful coach. We ran track together at Coe,” Henry said. “We still keep in touch. I get letters from him.”
• Martin Luther King Jr. — “He was a marvelous person,” Henry said. “I had the chance to meet him when he spoke at Coe. He was full of thoughts about where the world was going and what he could do to help.”
• Louis Armstrong — “What a talented musician,” Henry said.
• George H.W. Bush — “There were secret service men all over the stage in Sinclair Auditorium,” Henry said. “All eyes were on me as I took photos, and when I reached down to switch out my cameras, they were very alert to my actions, which made for an interesting shoot.”
• George Henry self-portrait — As part of the George T. Henry Archives dedication, Henry was asked to recreate a self-portrait he took in college, and it proved harder than expected. “You can’t just take one. You must black out the background, and the image is reversed. Then you can’t look through the camera so you can’t see what you’re shooting,” Henry said. “I chopped my head off the first time I tried it. It took me three tries.”

More of Henry’s favorites are published in the hardback book “Coe College: A sesquicentennial look through 50 years of George Henry photography.” “When I was asked to provide several hundred photos for this, I gave them 1,500 and said, 'Here. You choose,'” Henry said. “There was no way I could have narrowed it down.”

Henry enjoys thumbing through the four personal scrapbooks he’s created over the years. These scrapbooks chronicle the significant events in Henry’s life and career. One memory Henry is especially fond of was being on the cover of the summer 1997 Courier magazine. “It was such a delight to be on the cover. What a nice surprise,” Henry said.

His scrapbook also includes keepsakes from when the Coe College archives were dedicated as the George T. Henry Archives in October 1999. A generous contribution from Henry and his late wife, Kay, allowed for Henry’s photographs, along with college publications, books written by authors affiliated with Coe and college-related artifacts and manuscripts to be preserved indefinitely.

Henry’s scrapbooks also are filled with his love for river rafting. He began running rivers in 1956 and spent 45 summers rafting over 25,000 miles in the Western U.S. Henry’s final river trip was in 2011 at the age of 88.

He relished the opportunity to take Coe students and alumni down the rivers. One such trip included alumnus Kevin S. Kelly ’67. Kelly, a clinical psychologist turned filmmaker, celebrated Henry’s lifelong passion as a photographer in the documentary "80 Years Through the Lens – The Life and Work of George T. Henry.”

Although he’s not aware of the exact origins, Henry became known as Mr. Coe College. And it’s a name he wears proudly. “It makes me feel really good,” Henry said. “I’ve known so many people, and I’ve taken photos of about a quarter of the people that have gone through Coe.”

For a man who has spent his life preserving so many Coe moments in time...perhaps no one else is more deserving of the name Mr. Coe College.