My brother Henry died three years ago today, April 6. He was 70, my older brother, now younger than me.

When I thought about writing this post, I expected melancholy, but when Leah and I went thought a collection of photos to choose a few to post, we ended up with laughter instead. Here are a few we liked.

The first is shortly after May 18, 1950, when I was born.

Helping his little brother keep his balance.

Henry was almost three years older than me, so he started out not only my older brother, but also my bigger brother. He was a serious little boy.

He was smart from the very beginning. He angered his Cub Scout den mother when he corrected her about how many planets there were. Although Pluto was known since around 1930, apparently the Cub Scout material never updated, so his den mother thought there were only eight. Henry informed her that there were nine planets, including Pluto. She complained to my mother. Henry decided that the Scouts were not for him.

Henry was born in Akron, Ohio, where our mother grew up, and where my parents moved after my father came back from World War II. That explains this t-shirt.

I eventually caught up to Henry and pulled ahead as we got a little older.

We were both clean-cut because we attended a boys’ prep school that had strict grooming requirements, not that our mother would have let us get too shaggy.

Henry started at Georgia Tech in the summer after he graduated from high school. He attended classes straight through the summers until he started the co-op program. So, he was either in school or working throughout the year. He was seldom at home after he started at Tech.

Tech was a conservative institution at the time, and so were the times. Henry kept his conservative haircut in the early days. He would have been around 18 or 19 here.

Once he was in graduate school, he started to get a little more liberal with his hair and his politics.

Some time after 1973 when I started working at a newspaper in Augusta, Ga, I took a trip with Henry and one of his fellow grad students to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I don’t remember his beard being quite that exuberant.

He got married while in grad school (not to the cat), but here he is with the cat and, just off screen to the right, his first wife.

Henry’s judgement with respect to women was not particularly good. That marriage did not last. Later, he married again. He and his wife lived in New Kensington, Pa, near Pittsburgh, where he worked for Alcoa. He had been a runner since high school, and continued for years afterwards. He ran the Buffalo to Niagara Skylon International Marathon sometime in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. Our parents, who were visiting, went up with him. My father took this photo.

Henry was a better runner than me. He was also smarter than me, more responsible than me, and more successful. The only advantage I had over Henry was that I was taller, and maybe a little more lighthearted.

The last photo I have here is from when Henry was still working at Alcoa, which was quite a long time ago. The photo was taken when he received an honor from the company for his accomplishments. He looks very establishment here.

I didn’t find any photos from later in Henry’s life, at least none that showed much of him. He did a lot with his life, but of all the things in his life, he was most proud of his sons

In the end, he turned away from science and technology. I have mentioned before that he went to a seminary and became an ordained Presbyterian minister, a path I could not have followed. I believe that he enjoyed preaching; it was second nature for him from a long, long time ago. But he was not remembered at his memorial service for his preaching, he was remembered for the things he did to help people, particularly the homeless.

I was lucky to have a brother like Henry. The world is a poorer place without him.