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C A N A D I A N APRIL 2012


V A L


ELECTRALITE Longtime attorney left mark on CVEC


SUPPLEMENT TO OKLAHOMA LIVING


If you wanted to pat- tern your life morally, with worth and produc- tivity — Almon Henson would be a good man to use as your example. Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative board member Clayton Eads used these words to describe the cooperative’s longtime attorney before he retired as the legal mind of CVEC in 2002. Mr. Henson, a well- known Shawnee lawyer, died March 9 at the age of 93. He left behind a legacy of family, hard work and respect for the law.


L


E Y The power of human connections By George Almon Henson, March 3, 1919-March 9, 2012


Henson was a child of the Great Depression, who grew up in Garvin County but spent many of his boyhood years picking cotton and fruit out west. School in his formative years was sporadic. His parents valued education, but survival was foremost on their minds during those hard times, he said during a 2002 interview for the Electralite. He said as a child he would duck into the county courthouse and watch criminal cases unfold, sprouting his love for the law. “There were no lawyers in my family,” he said in 2002. “My father’s people were farm- ers, but I knew at an early age I wanted to go to law school.” He became a teacher first, and served as principal in the two-room Crossroads School in Garvin County. He later joined the U.S. Army Air Corps but swore when he returned from serving in World War II that he would become a lawyer.


In 1946, he started law school at the University of Oklahoma and in two years moved to Shawnee where he opened a small office atop a former bank. He had said he placed an advertisement in a local newspaper and waited weeks for his first client. “I’m not ashamed to say I lost my first case to a more experienced trial lawyer, but I learned a lot and gained a business partner,” Mr. Henson said in a 2002 interview. He later became partners with that lawyer, John Goode, at a law firm that eventually evolved into one that included his daughter and son. He continued to practice law until age 85.


Still somewhat a newcomer to Shawnee, Henson served as county prosecutor from 1951-1952 where he handled 53 criminal cases for Pottawatomie County District Court. He litigated the first case in Shawnee that was decided by a coed jury. He also is credited for envisioning the need for more parking and additional security at the courthouse during his tenure.


In 1968, he was hired as CVEC’s attorney, a position he held for 34 years. His son, Roger Henson, took over in 2002 and has been legal counsel since then. “Canadian Valley represents the rural people of this area and provides them with some- thing that improves their quality of life — electricity. When we provide electricity, we provide just about everything they need to put them on equal standing with people who live in the city,” he said in 2002.


Henson knew this because he lived in a home without electricity until he was a teenager. CVEC Manager George Hand said Henson identified with the cooperative and always put it first. Hand often referred to the attorney as Mr. Canadian Valley. “Canadian Valley couldn’t have had a more credible spokesperson,” Hand said.


One of my greatest blessings was to know and work with Almon Henson. Almon was counselor to Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative for 34 years beginning in the late 1960’s. From my perspective, Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative exists today as a result of the consistent, prin- cipled leadership it received from Almon Henson during the most difficult years for the cooperative and the energy industry. The cooperative had difficulty adjusting to the new reality of the energy industry ini- tially brought on by the oil embargo of the early 1970s. During this time board mem- bers, managers and employees came and went. Almon provided the continuity of leadership that kept Canadian Valley going. While I was not here during that time to have first-hand knowledge of this inci- dent, this story was related to me that at the end of one of those particularly difficult Canadian Valley board meetings during the 1970s, the president of the board of trust- ees told Almon, “This is it. It’s over. Call REA in the morning and tell them that they can have it (the cooperative).” Almon’s response, even though he had no vote in the matter, to the president of the board of the cooperative was, “No, that’s not the right thing to do. We got into this, we can make it work.” And with the continued quiet, strong leadership of Almon, the coopera- tive regained it bearings and focused on its mission of being a servant to the people who depend on it. While this may sound a little strange, Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative under his counsel became an organization with which Almon Henson could be and was proud to be associated. During all those years that Almon sat


in the Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative board meetings only speaking when it mat- tered, he did not need a motto or a mission statement posted on the wall for guidance. For Almon every issue was measured against the principle of what would be in the best interest of the customers/members of the cooperative. When Almon spoke, board members and managers listened, not because of any bestowed authority, but because of their regard for his counsel and wisdom.


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