Eric Lewis Henrikson – 50th Reunion Essay

Eric Lewis Henrikson

Date of Death: 30-Oct-1989

College: Saybrook

(This memorial was submitted by Kyle Gee and appeared in the Class Notes, February 1990.)

This is my first personal communication to the Class Notes, and one could not conceive of a less happy message to deliver. On October 30, 1989, Eric Henrikson, my friend since freshman year, my roommate for two years, and my law partner for fifteen years, was murdered leaving our law office in what was apparently a robbery of five dollars. Three people have been arrested, and two have confessed.

He is survived by his wife of ten years, Christina, his four-year-old daughter, Alexandra Vanessa, and his three-day-old son, James Sebastian. For what it’ s worth now, he attended Harvard Law School, he edited the Harvard Law Review, and in 1976, he co-founded what we (and perhaps we alone) deemed to be the prestigious Bay Area law firm of Henrikson & Gee. He was obstinate, opinionated, iconoclastic, argumentative, unyielding, humorous, bright, dedicated, unselfish, loyal, generous, and caring—a unique admixture which made him a friend worth having. I cannot begin to express the sense of loss that all of his family and friends are experiencing.

Some 300 people attended his memorial service. Among them were Tim Quinn from Columbus, Ohio, and David Mannis from Hartford, Connecticut. Reed Hundt was able to get out from Washington, DC for a visit the next week, and over the last month I have spoken with many of Eric’s other friends in our Class, including Eric’s past Yale roommates, Albee Budnitz in Nashua, New Hampshire, Bob Alexander in San Francisco, and Mike Golden in Philadelphia.