Richard A. Henson
Richard A. Henson, founder of Henson Aviation, endowed the
School of Science in 1988 creating the Richard A. Henson School of Science and
Technology. An avid pilot, he founded Henson Flying Service in his hometown of
Hagerstown, MD in 1931 when he was only 21 years old. During World War II he
was a test pilot for Fairchild Industries in Hagerstown, then developing and
manufacturing training and fighting planes for our nation’s wartime flyers.
After the war he turned his ideas and expertise as a flyer toward civil
aviation and in 1967 started the first commuter service for Allegheny Airlines
connecting Hagerstown to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. In 1981 he moved his
corporate headquarters to Salisbury describing this as “the model commuter city
in the United States.” After a period of phenomenal growth, Dick Henson sold
the airline to Piedmont Aviation Inc. in 1983, which in turn was bought out by
USAir in 1987. In 1990, he established the Richard A. Henson
Foundation which has given substantial financial gifts to local
institutions including the YMCA, Boy Scouts of America, Peninsula Regional
Medical Center and the Greater Salisbury Committee as well as Salisbury
University. He remained an active pilot in command of his personal jet until he
was 90. Mr. Henson died at age 92 on
June 12, 2002, but through the Henson Foundation, his legacy and philanthropic
endeavors will long continue.
