A celebration of John's life will take place in Seattle, WA on
Saturday, February 11, 2023, from 11am to 1pm
at Queen Anne Baptist Church,
2011 1st Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in John's memory
to the
QAHS Alumni Association
, PO Box 9128, Seattle, WA 98109.
April 27, 1933 to January 19, 2023
Native son of the “Emerald City” and a beloved husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend of many, John Peter Hennes is dead at the age of 89. He passed quietly at University of Washington Medical Center with his cherished wife Margaret Lahde by his side.
Born in Seattle to Albert “Ab” and Elma Hawkins Hennes, John was predeceased by twin brother James (Jim) and elder brother Randolph (Ran). Their father Ab, also a twin, was a scion of a founding family of the city of Bellingham; that town’s York District is named after John’s great-grandfather, Frank J York. Mother Elma grew up in one of the first houses built near Seattle’s Green Lake.
The three Hennes boys attended public schools, initially in their home neighborhood of Magnolia, and later at the erstwhile Queen Anne High School, from which John graduated in 1951. While there he developed his skills as both an athlete and a writer/editor: he played tackle on the Grizzlies’ football squad and was an associate editor of the school’s weekly paper, the KUAY. He went on to earn bachelor’s (University of Washington ‘56) and masters (University of Maryland ‘58) degrees, both in Physics.
John’s athleticism continued long after high school. He rowed on the UW crew and later with a Masters rowing team at Green Lake. He took up running in the 1970s and, during the ‘80s, completed three marathons. In 1979 he scaled Mt. Rainier. In the early 2000’s he and wife Margaret joined a “wallyball” team (volleyball played in a racquetball court). And from the late ‘60s until the early 2010s he—and, from the early ‘80s onward, Margaret--made their mark on the ski slopes of Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia.
Throughout his life John held great affection for both his alma maters: Queen Anne HS and the UW. He showed the latter through his and Margaret’s dedication to Husky football: the two held seasons tickets for over 20 years! He demonstrated the former through his editorial leadership of a new KUAY: the newsletter of the Queen Anne Alumni Association. His writing skills and clear vision guided every issue of that newsletter from its rebirth in 1982 until John’s passing. He also served for several years on the board of the Queen Anne Historical Society, and contributed to the 1993 book Queen Anne: Community on the Hill.
While at the UW John met his first wife, Tacoma-born Judith Mackoff Mosler. Married in 1958, the couple welcomed sons Scott (‘62) and Robert (‘63). Divorced in ‘76, John & Judith later cemented a lasting friendship. John’s devotion to the well-being of his progeny never faltered.
As a boy, John had dreamed of traveling into space—of becoming an astronaut. He found a way to indirectly realize that dream through his work at Boeing (1965-95) on the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) project, an important element of the Space Shuttle program. Put simply, the IUS propelled Shuttle “payloads”--a satellite or other spacecraft—from the Shuttle’s low-earth orbit into a much higher orbit or into outer space. Notable achievements of the program included successful launches of the interplanetary probes Magellan (Venus), Galileo (Jupiter), and Ulysses (Sun).
Margaret Dorothy Lahde, daughter of German immigrants and a former Sister of Providence, wed John in a gala celebration on April 15, 1989, and was his faithful companion and ally until the end of John’s life. She stood by his side during some of John’s darkest hours, including the 1986 Challenger disaster (the Challenger carried an IUS payload), the sudden death in 1995 of John’s twin brother and lifelong confidant Jim, and three confrontations with cancer. The couple took special joy in serving as “honorary grandparents” to two of Jim and wife Ginny’s grandkids: Caroline and McCoy Anderson Hennes.
John & Margaret’s house was always a place of warmth, humorous knick-knacks, and beautiful traditions. Christmas held a special place in their lives, and scarcely a winter went by without a tour-by-car of the holiday lights in neighborhoods across the city. A masterful story-teller, John enjoyed a well-crafted tale, and the films It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street often made appearances on the household TV set.
But of all the myths and tales that informed John’s life, perhaps none resonated so deeply as the story of Dorothy of Kansas and her three friends in the land of Oz (and her little dog, too). The three Hennes boys were avid fans of the Oz stories, both in movie form and as they had first appeared in the books of L. Frank Baum. And whether one chooses to fancifully cast John in the role of Scarecrow or of Tin Man or of Lion, none who knew him could fail to notice the keen brains, the generous heart, and the magnificent courage he brought to all his relationships and doings. John Hennes truly will be missed.