Many have asked about donations in Henry’s memory. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations support The Food Project or a family foundation currently under development. Information on both will be posted at www.rememberinghenry.com by Thursday. Born May 27, 1984, in Boston, Henry grew up and attended school in Medfield before enrolling at Milton Academy, where his dorm head described him as “the heart and soul of Goodwin House.” Milton was a time of important friendships, intellectual growth, and—a particular highlight—being part of the sailing team that won a national title. In the spring of his senior year, Henry spent 17 days—one for each of his 17 years—in the hospital for treatment for idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia. When he needed to understand the complex physiological processes in play, he sent his mother and aunt on a mission to the Harvard Coop to buy a medical school text on blood. He read it cover to cover, and became a full partner with a team of doctors from Children’s Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who worked tirelessly to help him beat the odds. Henry was discharged on his eighteenth birthday, received his Milton diploma in person with his classmates, and even attended a graduation party or two before a summer of setbacks, another hospital admission, and a long healing process. Henry recovered. He took an unplanned “gap year,” healing himself as well as a menagerie of pets, and sometimes their owners, through his work at a veterinary hospital that inspired him to enroll at Franklin & Marshall College as a pre-vet, eventually changing his major to Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind, an interdisciplinary mix of hard and soft sciences and the humanities. While at college, Henry met the two loves of his life: first Hillary Chazen, and later, a magnificent black lab named Mason, whom they rescued together. The three were inseparable. Acting on his interest in patient rights, Henry also interned in a public defender’s office, building the primary arguments for two successful cases that gained benefits for patients unable to advocate effectively for themselves. The thread that runs through Henry’s life—his leadership, purpose, mentoring, and capacity to effect change—is perhaps best expressed through his ten-year relationship with The Food Project, an organization fostering personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. Henry started there at age 14 as a crew member, rising through the ranks of summer positions to crew leader, Roxbury farm manager, and later, between college and graduate school, a year full-time as youth coordinator, building programming and curricula that ensured a level playing field for young participants from all backgrounds in the Boston metropolitan area. The Food Project embodied Henry’s hopes and dreams for society, not to mention his enjoyment of good food—grown well, harvested and cooked lovingly, and distributed to those for whom a healthy diet was economically challenging. It was a practical way to accomplish change and see growth of both food and youth. Henry was a natural teacher with an unusual capacity to synthesize and interpret information in the way best suited to whomever he was with. His honorary sister, Elizabeth Beedy, speaking of the inexplicable nature of losing Henry, said “I wish he were here to explain it all to us.” Henry was the guy who always did that. And who had a laugh, and a hug, like no other. All of Henry’s interests, passions, and considerable brainpower converged in July of this year when he enrolled in the Master of Public Health program at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He was on a mission, in the right setting with professional peers from various disciplines, to change U.S. health-care and mental health policy. Each of the people and institutions in Henry’s life felt his impact. The morning after he died, Henry’s sister found Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” on his computer desktop. The poem embodies all that Henry was. Henry is survived by his parents, Jeffrey and Lucy Bird Masters; sister Anne Tyler Masters and her spouse Greta Karen Masters of Brooklyn, New York; brother Charles Bradford Masters, of Medfield, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Vermont; maternal grandmother Anne Litchard Bird of Orchard Park, New York; paternal grandparents John and Virginia Masters of Burlington, Vermont; and by the love of his life, Hillary Chazen, daughter of Barbara Gross and Edward Chazen of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. Henry also leaves a large number of adoring cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, colleagues, classmates, and youth he befriended and mentored—too numerous to mention but so important to understanding his reach and the faith so many had that he would improve the world in a way only Henry could—with purpose, focus, humor, and time for flag football and the Red Sox. The family is in the process of establishing a vehicle to fund and facilitate better understanding of, and more effective treatment for, idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia in young people and children. When further information is available, the family welcomes participation at every level, from donations to scientific advising. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, 2009, in the Arlington Street Unitarian Universalist Church, at the corner of Arlington and Boylston streets, across from the Boston Public Garden. Please feel free to leave a memory and/or photograph at www.remberinghenry.com. |
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