Algo Henderson

Algo Donmyer Henderson was born in 1897 in Solomon, Kansas,[2] where his family lived on a farm.[3] He was a second lieutenant in World War I.[3] Henderson worked several jobs to fund his higher education, and attended five colleges.[3] He graduated with University of Kansas law and Harvard University business degrees.[3]

In 1936, he became the president of Antioch College, a Yellow Springs, Ohio, experimental college[3] He had been the executive vice president and acting president from 1934 until then.[4] At 39, he was among the youngest American college presidents.[3] He started a bronze foundry at Antioch to teach students small business management.[3] Henderson is credited for Antioch's shared governance between faculty and administrators.[4]

In the late 1940s, Henderson became the associate director of the commission for creating a state university in New York State, leading to the State University of New York and public community colleges.[3] In 1947, Henderson left Antioch's presidency[4] to serve New York State as the associate education commissioner until 1950.[3] Upon his resignation, he joined the University of Michigan as a professor and began the first U.S. doctoral program for higher education administration.[3]

He retired from Michigan in 1967[3] whereupon he and his wife moved to Orinda, California, when she became dean of admissions at California College of Arts and Crafts.[5] Henderson joined the University of California, Berkeley as a research educator.[3]

Henderson died of cancer on October 20, 1988, in Kaiser Permanente at the age of 91.[3] He was living in Orinda, California.[3] He had written 14 books on education.[3]

At the time of his death, his wife was Jean Glidden.[3] They met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she earned her doctorate in 1967, and married in 1963.[5] Henderson had a son, daughter, and stepdaughter.[3]