Michael Kenneth Henry, 73
Born: February 23, 1953
Death: May 27, 2026
Funeral Home Details:
Death: May 27, 2026
Funeral Home Details:
Rill Chapel
Address: 1151 Mitchell Ave. Port Orchard, Wa 98366
Phone: (360) 876-4405
Funeral Home WebsiteMike was a down-to-earth guy, quiet, calm, patient, also often funny as heck. He loved working with his hands, making useful and beautiful things out of wood. Mike would do anything for family and friends. He was a great Dad and Grandpa. Loved by many.
Mike was born Feb. 23, 1953, in Howell, Michigan, to Ken and Fran Henry. He was the middle child between two sisters, Joyce and Barb. His boyhood was classic 1960s, lots of free time outdoors roaming the neighborhood with his buddies.
Mike’s Dad was a science teacher during the school year and a National Park Ranger in the Tetons during the summer. There Mike’s love of outdoor adventures flourished. He has climbed the Grand Teton multiple times as well as all other major peaks in the park.
In 1968, Mike’s family moved to Helena, Montana. He played the French horn throughout high school and beyond.
One summer, Mike took a climbing course with the National Outdoor Leadership School based in Lander, Wyoming. He later became an instructor, teaching climbing, backpacking, and other wilderness skills. He and Chris met at NOLS in 1974, when she was a student.
Mike and Chris spent a winter in Casper, Wyoming, where he worked as an oil rig roughneck. Chris was a waitress and later, a surveyor’s assistant. That summer Mike and Chris took a cross-country road trip accompanied by Brooklyn Brown Dog (one in a line of “very good dogs” … and a few naughty ones).
In 1979, Mike and Chris graduated from Montana State University. They married Aug. 11, 1979, at her parents’ home on Long Island, N.Y. They once again traveled west and ended up in Port Orchard, Washington, where they have lived ever since.
In 1982, Mike and Chris took a deferred honeymoon, biking up the west coast of Ireland and visiting Paris.
Their son Alex was born in 1984. The family grew as they traveled to Guatemala to adopt daughter Rose, born in 1990, and son Daniel, born in 1995.
Mike started his career as a music teacher and later was a groundskeeper at McCormick Woods Golf Course. In 1998, he started Greentree Construction. One of his specialties was building beautiful decks.
Thanks to his construction skills and tons of sweat equity, he and Chris bought a “fixer-upper” home on Hull Avenue, which Mike cleaned out and restored, later adding a second story for the growing family. Thanks to the equity in that home and more sweat equity from Mike, they were able to move to a home in McCormick Woods in 2002.
He closed Greentree in 2005 and worked as a subcontractor until his retirement.
Mike was an extremely hard worker, very methodical. He knew how to kick back and when to fire up. He operated with a relaxed rhythm, doing what he wanted when he wanted, and what needed to be done when it was time. He was always willing to help pretty much anyone with a project or repair job, sometimes on the barter system but just as often pro bono. If he didn’t know how to do something, he’d find a way or make a way. His list of self-taught skills is long.
As a Dad, Mike was calm, patient and low key. He loved bringing the kids into his ever-expanding garden to pull up a fresh carrot or pick a juicy cherry tomato. He’d let the kids glue together scraps of wood in his garage workshop. He coached the Blue Angels, Daniel’s soccer team, and what a team! When Daniel was 10, they won the President’s Cup (state tournament) in their division of Washington Youth Soccer.
Mike and Chris kept up the Henry road trip tradition. They took the kids to Yellowstone and the Tetons, Lopez Island, Twisp, Lake Chelan and the Olympic Peninsula (multiple trips), along with day trips to Blake Island in Mike’s C-Dory.
Mike had many grand adventures and misadventures in the C-Dory, and thank God it was seaworthy as advertised! Mike’s annual trips to Sekiu for salmon or halibut, starting in the late 1990s, became a beloved tradition.
Mike enjoyed hunting for chanterelles. Any occasion was his excuse for a barbecue. He made the best smoked salmon and sourdough bread.
The grandkids loved Mike, and he loved them. He taught Jeremiah, Summer and Joshua how to fish, and they always looked forward to making pumpkin pie with Grandpa. On Mother’s Day, he helped June plant petunia baskets for her Mom and Grandma. Little Avery was just getting to know him.
The morning he fell ill with a stroke, he had been out in the garden talking about plans for the next project and the next and the next. We are deeply grateful to the Tacoma Genera staff for their excellent care. Warmest thanks to family and friends who have reached out in support.
Mike is survived by his wife Christina Henry; son Alex Henry (Katie Ortner-Henry); daughter Rose Roush (Tim Roush); son Daniel Henry (Tessa Pepper); grandchildren Jeremiah, Summer and Joshua Roush, and Juniper and Avery Henry; and sisters Joyce Meade and Barbara Henry.
Celebration of life: 10:30 a.m. July 13, Rill Chapel, Port Orchard.