116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Legendary Coe College photographer George T. Henry dies at 101
“Mr. Coe College” documented everything, big and small, for 67 years
Jan. 22, 2024 5:00 am, Updated: Jan. 22, 2024 12:19 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — If a picture is worth a thousand words, photographer George T. Henry leaves a legacy of millions in service to Coe College and Cedar Rapids.
The well-known photographer, whose work documented college life for half of the 20th century, died at his home in Cottage Grove Place on Sunday, Jan. 14, his 101st birthday.
“It was all about the story, and he wrote a good one,” said his younger son, Jeff Henry of Cedar Rapids.
Known on campus as “Mr. Coe College,” Henry’s photographs marked the lives of thousands who passed through Coe, from touchdowns and commencements to luminaries and heads of state who took the stage at Sinclair Auditorium. Some of his most iconic photographs on campus were of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Louis Armstrong and painter Marvin Cone.
His most prominent talent was finding the hidden gems of everyday life.
“You don’t take pictures of commonplace things, but I do,” he recounted telling a fellow photographer in a 2022 Gazette interview.
WW II service
With a Kodak Medalist camera, the World War II veteran started taking photos as a hobby upon his return from Europe in 1946, where he served as an Army Air Corps bomber pilot over Italy and Austria.
The hobby, starting with photos of dances on the Coe campus, quickly turned into a profession.
Henry pioneered video filming of football games in 1951. Where there was no place for camera operators to stand on the field, he made one — whether it was by climbing atop the press box, using the door and doorknob as steps, or scaling a 30-foot utility ladder at basketball games.
Henry received numerous awards and a honorary doctoral degree in fine arts from Coe. In 1999, he and his wife, Kay, capped their support of Coe by funding the Coe College archives, named after him and holding 130,000 of his black-and-white negatives and 10,000 color pictures.
“Many a Kohawk recognized that no event was truly a Coe College gathering until George appeared to capture the moment with his lens,” Coe President David Hayes said. “His dedication was such that he never failed to record both routine and extraordinary events that shaped and marked this college for more than half a century.
“He will be dearly missed by all those who had the opportunity to know him and see the world through his work.”
Optimism
Named the world’s longest serving member of the Optimist Club in 2022, Henry found plenty of ways to be of service to his community off campus, too. Born only four years after the international service organization started, he was a club member for 73 years.
“He was a friend to everyone,” said Dr. Dean Frey, a former veterinarian who had known Henry through the Optimist Club since 1963.
Friends and fellow club members largely credit his long life to a positive attitude that made the best of any situation.
It was reflected in his words and actions, even hours before he died.
“I’m starting on my second hundred years” were some of his last words, according to fellow Optimist Joan Force.
Force, who had known Henry since 2014, said his engagement as a reliable listener made him a comforting and unconditionally dependable presence, no matter the setting.
“It felt like he’d be there forever,” she said.
Summer adventures
With his summers free, Henry worked as a river guide for 45 years in Colorado and Utah, where he guided and photographed some of America’s most prominent celebrities of the 1960s, including Andy Williams, several members of the Kennedy family and Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest.
Last year, a set of film negatives from his time on the rivers were accepted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, where they will remain in perpetuity.
Among the most treasured photos framed on Henry’s bedroom wall were two he took of Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s on a whitewater rafting trip — one of Kennedy holding his daughter, Kerry, and one of Kennedy with his arm around Henry.
Henry served as a river guide on whitewater rafting expeditions until he was fired in 2000 — at age 77 — because his employer could no longer insure a river guide of his age.
Even toward the end of his life, the adventurer was never quite content to be still. Surrounded by almost 20 scrapbooks documenting his life, he was working on an autobiography — his second one.
Strength, love
Henry will be remembered, in part, for his persistence and determination.
“He had one of his hips replaced, and the next week he was at Coe on a ladder taking commencement photos. I remember him gently complaining he couldn’t carry his own bag,” his son Jeff Henry recalled. “After he had the other hip replaced a month later, he went white-water rafting in the Grand Canyon.”
But most of all, Jeff Henry said, his father should be remembered for his love of people — the trait that enabled him to capture the color of life using black and white film and a characteristic that endeared him to a legion of friends over the past century.
Services
Visitation for George T. Henry will be 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home, 4200 First Ave. NE. The funeral will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at First Congregational Church, 361 17th St. SE in Cedar Rapids.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
Daily Newsletters