Henry Jerome Zentgraf

Hank Zentgraf of Fort Collins died at home with his wife by his side on January 11, 2022, following a nearly four-year battle with cancer. He was a swimmer, a cyclist, a pilot, and an engineer with an inexhaustible work ethic, a sharp mind, and an unwavering moral code. He was 87.

Hank was the third of four children born to Henry and Helen (Linkenheimer) Zentgraf of Pittsburgh, PA. He overcame Polio as a child, largely because his mother applied hot wet towels to his paralyzed side every 30 minutes, around the clock. He graduated from South Hills High School in1952 and attended the University of Pittsburgh on a swimming scholarship. There, he studied electrical engineering and participated in ROTC. He then completed Air Force flight school and was assigned to Topsham, Maine. In addition to logging an unusually high number of flight hours, Hank managed a 24/7 top secret cryptographic encoding/decoding center, a tactical telephone switchboard, and a teletype communications center.

When Hank graduated from University of Pittsburgh he was offered a position at IBM, which was put on hold until he completed his military service. He joined IBM’s Development Engineering Department to design mass storage systems for the full range of IBM’s computers. He helped IBM achieve several patents in magnetic storage and received the IBM Outstanding Invention Award for his last engineering effort as the Senior Engineering Manager. That invention set the industry standard for the technology at the time. Hank also set up technical partnerships between IBM and three Colorado research universities and spearheaded a leadership training program with Colorado’s public high schools. In his final year at IBM, Hank was the Executive in Residence at the University of Denver’s School of Business. Although he started his IBM career in Poughkeepsie, NY, he spent most of it at the plant in Boulder. Before moving to Boulder, he completed his Master’s Degree at Syracuse University.

Upon retiring from IBM, he was asked by the President of the University of Northern Colorado to take the newly endowed chair of the Tointon Institute to focus on school reform. In that capacity, he took on the K-12 Laboratory School which was testing in the bottom quartile in annual assessments and had no Advanced Placement classes. Hank asked the faculty to change directions, and through their efforts, student outcomes improved dramatically.

Throughout his career as an engineer and manager, Hank had many opportunities to rise higher in position and title, but he consistently turned them down, preferring ‘horizontal growth’ which would afford him time with his family, friends, neighbors and community. He never regretted those choices.

Hank was active in each community in which he lived. In Poughkeepsie, he volunteered to teach water safety skills, and he entered a competition administered by the Experiment in International Living and was selected to travel to Chile as a Community Ambassador. He formed a lifelong friendship with the family he lived with in Chile. It was also through his contacts in Poughkeepsie that Hank met Karen Willits of Long Island, NY, who he married in 1965

While in Boulder, Hank rose early on Monday mornings to feed the homeless at the Congregational Church and was a ‘Big Brother’ to a 13-year-old with a traumatic history. He and Karen supported Boulder Friends Meeting and American Friends Service Committee in their sponsorship of an African-American family from Drew, Mississippi, who had fled their home due to retaliatory violence after sending their children to the previously-all-White schools. Two of the family’s nine children spent a summer with the Zentgrafs, getting a break from the heightened stress in Drew. Hank also volunteered at the Boulder YMCA for years, developing a youth employment center, joining the Executive Committee, and eventually becoming the President. He and Karen swam on the Boulder Y Masters Swim Team, and in 1978 Hank was elected president of the Colorado Masters Swimming Association. He helped organize a statewide team to compete in the National Short Course Championship. The Rocky Mountain Masters, as they were called, entered a mid-size team, but their outsized quality overwhelmed the larger teams from around the country, bringing home the Women’s, Men’s, and Team titles. For their volunteer work, Hank and Karen were with presented the Colorado Lt. Governor’s Cup.

In Fort Collins, Hank was active with the Newcomer’s Group, attended and taught a class for the Front Range Forum, met regularly with friends at LaMar’s Donuts and the Breakfast Club, and kept current on world events, US news, and climate science. He loved traveling and being by the ocean. He and Karen owned a condo in Aukumal, Mexico, and later a condo in Naples, FL, which they kept until January 2020. He and Karen took a trip to Haiti in 2016 to get an on-the-ground view of the aid organization Hope for Haiti, which they had supported and volunteered at in Naples for many years. In 1981, when their three daughters were 10, 12 and 13, Hank took the whole family on a 6-week camping trip through Europe. In later years, he and Karen took bicycle trips in the U.S., Europe, Tasmania, and New Zealand. They also treated grandson Phillip to a trip to the Mediterranean, following the steps of Saint Paul, and treated granddaughter Kimberly to a trip to Iceland and Paris.

Through all of his adventures, Hank maintained a focus on his family and friends, sometimes telling his daughters that making and maintaining personal relationships is the purpose of life.

Hank is predeceased by his parents, his brother Jim, his sister Nancy, and his niece Melanie. He is survived by his wife, his brother Bill, his three daughters Kristin (Chuck), Elisabeth (Mark), and Danielle (Steven), his three grandchildren Phillip (Aleena), Kimberly, and Annaliese, and three nieces and a nephew.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to Hope for Haiti:

Hope for Haiti

Department No. 0286

P.O. Box 413026

Naples, FL 34101

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