Frank Henderson: Public servant, respected leader

Frank Henderson was a true American Hero. He came to North Idaho for his semi-retirement as a newspaper man. Post Falls was his town, and the Post Falls Tribune weekly paper was to be his last hurrah - or so he thought. Before long he ran for mayor and won - not in his original plan. I was general manager of the Coeur d'Alene Chamber in 1980-87 when Frank and I got to work together on the area economic development efforts.

There was no "Jobs Plus" at the time. It was years away, and the Coeur d'Alene Chamber, Frank at the county, and Panhandle Area Council headed by Jim Deffenbaugh and Joe Pike, by the mid-1980s was the economic development collaboration effort for the region. They responded to economic inquiries from companies and followed up on leads about companies that might be thinking of relocating. Frank was the energy and focus. I was the contact person, and Jim was the nuts and bolts of the economic picture we presented. We worked long hours and had a good team. We met company leaders and visited companies, even going to Sweden together on a trade mission paid for by the client company that later came to visit North Idaho.

Frank presented himself and us as well as could be done as the quintessential government representative and official. His plain spoken message and straight forward direct approach was always well received. He not only had a rapport and made connections at the highest levels easily, but also made eye contact in a way that let people know he spoke the truth and knew what he was talking about. This skill served him well in his work as an international Score Volunteer, teaching business and governmental organization to eastern block countries. He told about being in tiny apartments with just a few hours of electricity, heat and water a day.

In the mid-1980s (when Frank was County Commission and I, as Chamber Executive, was head of the State Chambers Association) we promoted the passage of state legislation to allow counties to enact or approve Revenue Bonding to provide local funding to support business and industry expansion. The legislature had turned it down 11 years in a row, and this time it passed, with even the staunchest eastern Idaho legislators saying with such a strong support base, they weren't going against a coalition of chambers and county officials. Frank was a big reason it happened.

The follow-up to that came the next year when the more complicated legislation for Tax Increment Financing was able to be passed so that municipalities could form urban renewal districts. Frank knew support of local economic recovery and transition to more intense and productive economic uses for job creation would follow.

His thoughtful, behind-the-scenes nurturing of leaders and supporters alike did so many good things for the city he loved, the county, and certainly the state, and even the country that most will never be fully known or understood. I treasure the chance I had to be part of the good things Frank did. I learned so much from him and the way he did what he did so well. It was truly a blessing he was inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame while he was here to receive and enjoy the honor. It is hard to imagine anyone more deserving.

My best memory of my times spent with Frank are from fishing and camping with him on his favorite White Swan Lake in the Canadian Rockies where he showed me how to catch about the biggest rainbow trout I ever did - the picture he took of me with it still proves it.