In Toronto, on July 21, 2022. Born in Baltimore, Maryland November 1, 1929, he will be lovingly remembered by his daughter Karen, grandson Jackson and granddaughter Hailey.
Henry lived a full life: serving in the US army until being discharged as a Sgt in 1962; completing a Bachelor of Engineering degree at the University of Maryland on the GI Bill; visiting countries around the globe; beginning and ending an accomplished career at NASA; and raising his daughter as a single dad.
Henry joined NASA in the mid- 60’s and became the Station Director for NASA’s Manned Space Flight Network on Ascension Island – which provided critical communication with NASA’s spacecraft for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. Ascension Island is located in the South Atlantic Ocean 1,000 miles from Africa and 1,500 miles from South America and there were many good stories that were told about his time on this remote volcanic island.
Henry’s fondest work memories come from his time working on the Canadarm (for NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet) at SPAR aerospace in Toronto. He joined SPAR in 1980 and was a mainstay of the Canadarm program. Henry brought all the best practices and work culture from his time at NASA to Canada’s preeminent space program. He was instrumental in instituting the rigour and discipline required to build, test and manufacture mission critical hardware such as the Canadarms (5 in total) – as the Material Review Board Chairman. He ran his meetings with ruthless professionalism and efficiency, personifying NASA’s motto in the engineering mission control room – “In God we trust, all others bring data”. A highlight of Henry’s career at SPAR was being awarded the prestigious Silver Snoopy Award which is selected by NASA’s astronauts.
Henry was a great mentor to many engineers and staff that worked on the Canadarm program and he made life- long friends during his time on the program. Indeed, many of the principals Henry instituted are still in use today at MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) Robotics & Space Operations division (formerly SPAR). While Henry championed underdogs and junior engineers- he was known for not suffering fools gladly – especially if there was a pompous element involved. Henry’s acerbic wit was legendary at SPAR which made him a great deal of fun to work with on a team.
In the early 90’s, Henry worked on planning for the Canadarm2 for the International space Station and then went on to work on the Tokamak Fusion Reactor in Princeton as part of SPAR’s nuclear program.
In 1993 Henry moved back to his hometown of Baltimore and worked as contractor for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance engineer – where he drew accolades for his work on such programs as Goddard’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission. After an illustrious career, Henry retired in 2003 and came back to Toronto to be with his family.
Henry was first introduced to Toronto in 1968 when he took a brief break from his career in aerospace and came to Canada with an entrepreneurial idea. The business idea didn’t take off but he met his future wife, Barbara. They were soon married and had a daughter.
Throughout his impressive career, his family and friends remained of highest importance to Henry. If you were a friend of Henry, it was for life. He loved nothing more than a good meal out with those whom he loved: his favourite meal being oysters on the half-shell, a good steak and a strong gin martini. He was a man of culture; enjoying the opera, musicals, and live theatre. He was well read in politics, history, and philosophy but always had time for a good legal thriller. He would regularly complete the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle – although he used a pencil, he rarely made a mistake. He also firmly believed that an annual trip to the beach was required for good health and made the sojourn to the shore for over 70 years, always including family and friends.
He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He was a wonderful father and grandfather, a loyal friend, accomplished in his career and loved by many.
A celebration of life will be held on September 10th at 2:00 PM at Morley Bedford Funeral Home, 159 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto.
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2022
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Henry Stintz 2022..
Morley Bedford Funeral Services Ltd
Décès pour la Ville:Toronto, Province: Ontario