Courtesy: HARRA

Word was received today that Jack passed away peacefully on October 3 at the hospital after his short, but courageous battle with colon cancer. Jack's son has advised that a memorial service is being planned for this Saturday. Also, some type of memorial tribute to Jack at Memorial Park is being planned. Details on both to be provided at a later date.

Henney was a long-time member of HARRA and was a top age group finisher and, many times, an age group winner in area races. As recently as this past summer he was second in the 60-64 age group at both the Freedom Run 5K (20:50) and the Lunar Rendezvous 5K (20:46) and competed in the master's and interclub track meets in August.

For those of you never had the pleasure of meeting Jack, the note below, provided by HARRA member Bonnie Egbert, gives a good insight to the type of person he was.

From Bonnie:

Jack was such a nice man. I have to tell you that when I first laid eyes on Jack, he was running through his neighborhood, Steeplechase, here on the North side. At that time I was a school bus driver for Cypress Fairbanks ISD, and my last bus run of the day took me into Steeplechase. It was there that I would see Jack running every afternoon. He did not know me and I did not know him, but he was so friendly and would give me a big wave and smile every day. Little did he know that I was a new beginning runner. Little did I know that he was such an exceptional runner.

I was at the 1997 10 Miles for Texas race, getting ready to run the longest distance yet of my running career. It was there that I spotted Jack. I introduced myself as the school bus driver that he waved to every afternoon, and he immediately knew who I was. He being such an experienced runner, and I being a new beginner, he was very friendly and very giving of his running advice that I appreciated very much.

Now four years and seven marathons later, no longer driving a school bus, I continued to see Jack in the park or in River Oaks or at a road race and he was always just as friendly as he was, when he used to wave and smile to me on my bus route. It is because of good people like Jack, who make our Houston running community such a great one!