Paul
Harry Henson began his career as a warehouseman and grew to
become an internationally known leader in telecommunications.
Henson was the architect behind the emergence of Sprint Corp.
as a leader in the communications industry. He served as
chairman of Sprint, formerly United Telecom, for 25 years,
stepping down in 1990 to become chairman of Kansas City
Southern Industries.
Henson
also was among a handful of civic leaders who helped shape
Kansas City for a generation. He was involved in charitable
causes including Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Kansas City
Symphony, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and
Midwest Research Institute. “Paul incarnated the concept of
servant leadership,” said Irvine Hockaday, president and chief
executive of Hallmark Cards Inc. “You follow people not
because they are dictatorial, but because they serve with
you. Paul was able to focus people and provide vision, but
then he got in the march right alongside you.” Local leaders
described Henson as “a giant in civic work,” a man who became
immediately involved upon moving to Kansas City and one who
brought great efficiency and enthusiasm to the projects he
worked on.
Henson
also was committed to business development in Kansas City. To
help entrepreneurs obtain life-giving capital for their new
businesses, he formed a venture capital fund in 1993 called
Kansas Equity Partners L.C. and served as its president.
In his
personal life, he also showed courage and determination in
battling major illness.
Henson
stepped down as chairman of Westwood-based Sprint in April
1990, moving on the job of chairman of Kansas City Southern
Industries. He replaced William N. Deramus III, who had died
in 1989.
“Paul
had a great Midwestern sense of independence, a sense that our
companies should be equipped to drive in the global
marketplace,” said Landon Rowland, president of Kansas City
Southern. “He certainly did that at Sprint and was helping us
do it at Kansas City Southern.”
Henson’s most notable business accomplishments were achieved
at Sprint, where he helped oversee construction of a
nationwide fiber optic network in the mid-1980s. Sprint
became the third-largest long-distance company in the United
States.
“He was
the outstanding leader in the communications industry in his
time,” said Thomas Nurnberger, a former AT&T executive who
became director of Sprint. “The idea of a nationwide
fiber-optic network was his, and he went ahead with it at time
when no one else was doing it.” Sprint has become one of
Kansas City’s most international businesses, with Chairman
William T. Esrey and other executives searching the globe for
telecommunications deals. Henson picked Esrey to be his
successor.
Like
many of Kansas City’s business leaders, Esrey described Henson
as a mentor- a man who not only was a good financial manager
and strategist, but one who understood people. “Even in the
years when he was ill and in great pain, he always focused on
the other person,” Esrey said. “He was always positive. He
believed in people and really let them do their own thing.”
Henson
was a catalyst for change in the telecommunications industry
and was often looked to for leadership when the company and
its competitors were seeking solutions to common problems.
“There’s lots of partnering going on in our industry today,
and I can’t tell you how many times people have come to me and
said “We want to partner with Sprint because we like your
people,” Esrey said. “The type of people we are is the type
of people Paul made us.”
Henson
grew up on a 160-acre farm near Bennet, Neb., near Lincoln. A
Sprint in-house magazine reported that “Paul, the third oldest
kid in the family, still remembers milking cows in the middle
of the winter when they’d hit him in the head with their
frozen tails.
Henson
was a fighter pilot in World War II and reached the rank of
captain. Once, he revealed, a daredevil, prankster side.
While flying a P-47 fighter planed from Winfield, KS to
Lincoln, Henson flew low over his father’s farm. He then flew
upside down over the goalposts of his high school’s football
field.
Henson
married Betty Roeder in 1946, and the couple had two
daughters, Susan Flury, Omaha, and Lizbeth Henson Barelli,
Kansas City.
He
started his career as a warehouseman for Lincoln Telephone and
Telegraph Co. before rising to chief engineer. In 1959, he
decided to join the company that would become Sprint as vice
president, turning down job offers from Western Union in New
York and the Brazilian Traction Co. in South America.
At the
time, the company had just 45,000 telephones, a fraction of
its current customer base. Now it provides local telephone
service in 19 states as well as long-distance service
nationally and internationally. Henson transformed what was a
sleepy telephone company that was born in Abilene, Kan., into
one of Kansas City’s top employers.
“The
greatest thing that Paul and his associates have given Kansas
City is a company on the forefront of technological change,”
said Rowland. “In building the foundations of Sprint, he made
a tremendous investment in the community that continues to pay
dividends today.” Henson rose with Sprint in tandem with the
company’s growth, becoming president in 1964 and chairman in
1966.
Under
his management, the company got into and out of several
businesses, including cable television, telephone equipment
manufacturing and computer graphic systems. But he eventually
decided the best strategy was to offer long-distance service,
and he helped steer the company through a period of severe
financial strain that resulted. The company’s entrance into
long-distance required massive investment, and it sustained
$785 million in losses and write-off’s from 1982 through
1988.
In the
mid-1980’s, Henson battled inoperable liver cancer but
survived with an experimental drug. For years, he had to give
himself three daily injections of the medication in his
stomache. In addition, Henson underwent surgery for the
removal of tumors from his chest in the summer of 1985.
Despite
his hurdles, Henson worked on behalf of many civic projects,
observing in 1987 that he regretted the division in the city’s
business elite. “I do sense that there is a lack of
coordinated leadership in this community,” he said.
In late
1996, Henson was named “Technology Leader of the Decade” by
Silicon Prairie Technology Association, a local high-tech
group.
Among
his many citations: Honorary consul to Sweden, 1971-1986;
Chancellor’s Medal, the University of Missouri-Kansas City,
1984, and Kansas Citian of the Year, Chamber of Commerce of
Greater Kansas City, 1984.
He
served on corporate boards, including those of BMA Corp.,
Armco Steel Corp., United Missouri Bancshares, Duke Power Co.,
the Williams Cos., Hallmark Cards Inc. and Ameribanc.
He has
served as chairman of the Heart of America United Way and on
the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
In
an emotionally charged farewell to Henson at Sprint’s 1990
annual meeting of shareholders, a teary-eyed Esrey said, “All
we can give you today is our heartfelt gratitude, our great
respect and our promise to carry on into the future, building
on the rich legacy you have left us. Henson, clearly touched,
but appearing somewhat uncomfortable, replied, “It has been an
interesting journey.”
