Obituary of Walter Henderson

Gene Henderson, age 77, passed away on January 25th at NC Little Hospice in Edina. Gene was a loving father and grand-father, a structural engineer and so much more. He became the first member of his family to graduate from a University (Kansas State) and worked hard to pay for it all with his large paper route. He was a very good structural engineer. He designed bridges, including the pedestrian bridges in Lake Placid for the 1980 Olympics, buildings large and small, and commercial panels for a myriad of projects, including the Mall of America. He built his own home, a sailboat and a canoe and helped out so many friends and family with personal remodeling projects. He was a humble and intelligent engineer with a dry sense of humor who loved his work, but also had a love for adventure, and in particular, a love for bicycle trips. Just a couple of years ago, despite battling prostate cancer and diabetes, he set out on his own, at age 74, on a three month bicycling adventure starting in Washington state and ending in Arizona. As usual, he made many friends along the way. Years earlier, he had biked up and down the Rocky Mountains and in Glacier Park, enjoying the challenge and scenery. He enjoyed many adventures on the Jim Klobuchar bike rides, making several lifelong friends, many of whom were friends until his final days. Years after his wife of forty two years Linda died, he fell in love with Marcia, and they enjoyed several biking adventures in Minnesota, New York City and Arizona. Most recently, in August of 2017, Gene and Marcia biked over 50 miles in the Minnetonka annual bike ride. Gene loved his work, friends, family, biking, train travel, baseball, racquetball, sailing and figuring out how things worked. He was a Hockey Association President in Brainerd, created a baseball league in Alexandria, and owned a racquetball club known as Racquetball Plus. He was always involved and he stayed that way, right up through his last days. He embraced life and took nothing for granted. He is preceded in death by his parents, Florence and Elmer Henderson, sister Ann and wife Linda. He is survived by his love Marcia, sons Mike (Jen), Eric (Tawnya), and grandkids Liam, Aidan, Nickolas and Jadyn. A private family celebration of Gene's life will be held at a later date. Cremation Society of Minnesota is handling the arrangements.