Loren Malcolm Hendry

I first met Loren in June of 1984 in my first professional job after graduating college. New town, new people, and Loren became my mentor and introduced me to everything in the world of engineering at Sperry Aerospace, which later became Honeywell. We were young (I was 24 and he was 27.) and being that I moved from Texas, I acted like a Texan. As he was a Canadian, he seemed to be somewhat amazed at my brash behavior. Many days we would talk about his childhood, growing up in Canada, and about how his parents shaped him into what he was at that time. Maybe a little "shy" back then ... keeping a lot of things to himself. We shared the same cubicle for almost 10 years and so we talked about everything, literally. I think around 1988, I was able to crack the Loren code, and he gained a lot of confidence and adopted my "code" with women, which he extrapolated based on his observation of events ... but that's another 1,000 stories. Loren and I worked on material specifications and standards and approvals for aerospace applications. He was always the metals guy and I was the non-metals guy and also into race cars, it seems. As I saw Loren open up to new ideas and beliefs, he still was rock solid on others. Like in the early years, he would never wear anything with synthetics. He was a cotton or wool guy, but I'm guessing he changed later in life. Also, he was a devout Honda driver. I remember how, for fun, we would argue between American made cars and Japanese made cars. Loren always said, "Some day you will drive a Honda." Now, I drive 2 Japanese cars, and one is a Honda. Loren was married for some number of years, and we talked about all of that marriage and divorce issues. I was single and proclaimed to never get married. After I left Honeywell, I did happen to get married and I had to call him up and let him know. He yelled at me, "What? You didn't call me first? I would have slapped you down until you saw the mistake you are making." Of course, he was right; I was divorced after 10 years, and had to have him coach me, using my own "bro code" to get me through it. Life is strange. Sometimes, for fun, we would go to a gentlemen's ballet to pass the time. More than once, we met a woman who was sweet and charming, and Loren interviewed her, and we discovered when her birthday was. On this one occasion, he cooked a birthday cake for her and we had presents and went in to the gentlemen's ballet to surprise her. When we tracked her down, and realized our kindness. She cried with happiness and Loren acted like it was no big deal and that he would do that for anyone .. and he would. In his early years, pre-40, he was very humble; almost to the point where it would make you mad that he was so kind and unselfish. In fact, that word, "Unselfish" is one of his key traits. It seems like everyone else came first. Like others have said on here, we cannot believe that he is gone. Even though I have been away from Phoenix for about 30 years, we would occasionally trade a phone call or text and check up on one another. One year, he flew to Austin and helped me throw one of my large pool parties. Instead of enjoying himself, he became the cook and waiter, and did most of the clean up. He was just that kind of guy, that would "give" to his friends, and strangers, more than you would ever think was needed or necessary. He always was giving and I don't think I ever remember him "taking". I can hear him talking to me now ... the "voice of Hendry" telling me to "just go for it". So sad for all of us who will not have him touching our lives again. I would say that Loren is going to Heaven with all the good souls ... but I know that he wasn't a big believer in formal religion, so I can just hope that his soul is buzzing around us, even now, watching us talk and write about him, and how much we missed him. It tears at my heart that I won't have a final conversation. I can't wait to speak with others to share the stories, especially those of you who knew him the past 25 years. Hendry, it was a good ride ... we miss you buddy. Go for it.