The Earl of Henderson
Mammoth landscape contractor, water board member, dies at 68
Earl Henderson, says sister Debbie, always lived by this motto: “Complaints don’t get you anywhere. Solutions are what get you places.”
Ever the problem solver, particularly when it came to water issues and water conservation, Henderson, who sat on the Board of Directors for the Mammoth Community Water District for 12 years, died last week of complications from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He was 68.
Fellow Board member Tom Cage described Henderson as “a great, technical, very exact guy. And he could totally break down [numbers] what you needed off the top of his head. If you were talking about watering and gave him a square footage, he could tell you exactly how many gallons of water you needed [if the optimal watering schedule was implemented].” He was also keen on smart clocks, systems to measure evaporation and technology in general, added Cage.
MCWD General Manager Pat Hayes added, “He brought a lot to the board in terms of irrigation and irrigation system expertise. In the drought, he could show us what was possible, and what was not…he was never hesitant in being generous with his time and talents.”
Henderson was born February 8, 1948 in Hawthorne, Calif. He grew up primarily in the Whittier area as well as Bakersfield, where he graduated high school.
He was one of six children.
His little sister Debbie (and he called her his “little sis” to his final days) said Earl spent his childhood going “90 miles-per-hour with his hair on fire” and he was just as passionate about his interests then as later. He flourished in the high school debate club and Debbie said by the time he was 16 or 17, he commandeered his own “office” within the house.
