J. Gordon Henry 1916-2011

J. Gordon Henry, age 95, passed away in Naples, Fla. on Dec. 6, 2011.

Before moving to Marco Island in 1981, Gordon worked as Senior Vice President and Trust Counsel at the Northern Trust Company in Chicago.

His principal avocation was teaching and he devoted significant time organizing and teaching courses in estate planning and business law in numerous states throughout the country. His most important legal advocacy was as a member of a five-member Federal Taxation Section Committee which succeeded in causing Congress to repeal a complex law that would have had a devastating effect on the administration of decedents' estates.

Gordon assumed multiple leadership positions throughout his lifetime in community, church, athletic, and school-based committees and Boards in Illinois and Florida. He served as Commander of the Marco Island Power Squadron, Commodore of both the Marco Cruise Club and the Marco Bay Yacht and Sailing Club, and Director of the Marco Island Yacht Club and YMCA. With his wife Coke Henry, he became cruise planner extraordinaire and a backwater specialist navigating through dense mangrove islands in the Everglades.

His family thanks all of Gordon's friends and acquaintances on Marco Island who helped provide him with a deeply satisfying and happy retirement. Gordon was predeceased by his first wife of 41 years, Aileen Wilson; and his second wife of 24 years, Carol Seaman Sudler.

Gordon is survived by a daughter Laura Henry of Zion, IL; and two stepchildren Carroll and Elizabeth Sudler of Los Angeles, CA and Sag Harbor, NY.