Mike was a very down-to-earth guy, quiet, calm, patient, also often funny as heck.

He loved working with his hands, making useful and beautiful things out of wood. He loved gardening, fishing and doing crossword puzzles! Mike would do anything for family and friends. He was a great Dad and Grandpa. Loved by many.

Mike was born Feb. 23, 1953, in Howell, Michigan, to Ken and Fran Henry. He was the middle child between two sisters, Joyce and Barb. His boyhood was classic 1960s, lots of free time outdoors roaming the neighborhood with his buddies. He had a treehouse, which became home to a menagerie of reptiles and small furry pets. Mike’s Dad used to take him out into the woods in winter with a package of hot dogs and a single match. If he could light a fire, they ate. If not, they went home hungry.

Mike’s Dad was a science teacher during the school year and a National Park Ranger in the Tetons during the summer. There Mike’s love of outdoor adventures flourished. He spent his summers mountaineering, hiking and fishing in pristine lakes and streams. He has climbed the Grand Teton multiple times as well as all other major peaks in the park.

In 1968, Mike’s family moved to Helena, Montana. Mike played the French horn throughout high school and beyond. A high point of his high school musical career was playing the solo in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No 1, with sister Barb on violin in the orchestra.

One summer, Mike took a climbing course with the National Outdoor Leadership School based in Lander, Wyoming. He later became an instructor, teaching climbing, “leave no trace” backpacking, outdoor cooking and botany. He and Chris met at NOLS in 1974, when she was a student.

Mike and Chris spent a winter in Casper, Wyoming, where he worked as an oil rig roughneck. It was a tough and dangerous job, especially when he worked as a derrick hand high in the tower of the rig. Chris was a waitress and later, a surveyor’s assistant.

That summer Mike and Chris took a cross-country road trip accompanied by Brooklyn Brown Dog (one in a line of "very good dogs" … and a few naughty ones). They drove an old International Travelall that had been a Wyoming school bus. The folks in New York, where Chris’ parents lived, didn’t know what to make of that! They headed back west, traveling up to Alberta, Canada, over to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, then down the Washington Coast and back to Montana.

In 1979, Mike and Chris graduated from Montana State University. They married Aug. 11, 1979, at her parents’ home on Long Island, N.Y. They once again traveled west and ended up in Port Orchard, Washington, where they have lived ever since.

In 1982, Mike and Chris took a deferred honeymoon, biking up the west coast of Ireland and visiting Paris, where sister Barb (ever the world traveler) had met a local family.

Their son Alex was born in 1984. The family grew as they traveled to Guatemala to adopt daughter Rose, born in 1990, and son Daniel, born in 1995.

Mike started his career as a music teacher and later was a groundskeeper at McCormick Woods Golf Course. In 1998, he started Greentree Construction. One of his specialties was building beautiful decks.

Thanks to his construction skills and tons of sweat equity, he and Chris bought a “fixer-upper” home on Hull Avenue, which Mike cleaned out and restored, later adding a second story for the growing family. Thanks to the equity in that home and more sweat equity from Mike, they were able to move to a home in McCormick Woods in 2002.

Starting around 2005, he closed Greentree and worked as a subcontractor until his retirement.

Mike was an extremely hard worker, very methodical. He knew how to kick back and when to fire up. He operated with a relaxed rhythm, doing what he wanted when he wanted, and what needed to be done when it was time. He was always willing to help pretty much anyone with a project or repair job, sometimes on the barter system but just as often pro bono. If he didn’t know how to do something, he’d find a way or make a way. His list of self-taught skills is long.

As a Dad, Mike was calm, patient and low key. He loved bringing the kids into his ever-expanding garden to pull up a fresh carrot or pick a juicy cherry tomato. He’d let the kids glue together scraps of wood in his garage workshop, creating random sculptures. He coached the Blue Angels, Daniel’s soccer team, and what a team! When Daniel was 10, they won the President’s Cup (state tournament) in their division of Washington Youth Soccer.

Mike and Chris kept up the Henry road trip tradition. Once they went for a Sunday drive and ended up in Montana. They took the kids to Yellowstone and the Tetons, Lopez Island, Twisp, Lake Chelan and the Olympic Peninsula (multiple trips), along with day trips to Blake Island in Mike's C-Dory and other adventures.

Mike christened the C-Dory the Mezzo Presto, a musical term that means “half fast.” Say “Half Fast” quickly and you’ll get Mike’s inside joke. He had many grand adventures and misadventures in that boat, and thank God it was seaworthy as advertised! Mike’s annual trips to Sekiu for salmon or halibut, starting in the late 1990s, became a beloved tradition.

Mike would sometimes fish with Dan Wolfle, Steve Keifer, the late Phil Stanley and other good buddies, but often on his own, heading out at dawn, later swapping fish stories by the campfire. Chris joined him on many trips over the past decade, after the kids had grown and flown. The joke was, "he just brought me along for my fishing license.”

In other leisure pursuits, Mike enjoyed golfing (back in the day), horseshoes with Bob Bonnell and shooting a round of pool with his pals at the pub. He and Bob watched many a Seahawks game on TV together, as well as the Master’s Golf tournament.

Mike enjoyed hunting for chanterelles. Any occasion was his excuse for a barbecue: steak, ribs pulled pork or brisket, plus his famous twice-baked potatoes, stuffed portobello mushrooms, shrimp cocktail. He made the best smoked salmon (though he was always his own worst critic). He was working to perfect his sourdough bread recipe and nailed it on the last batch he made shortly before he died.

The grandkids loved Mike, and he loved them. On visits, they’d seek him out, “Hey Grandpa, will you read to us? Will you play a game with us?” He shared his TV, giving up his beloved NCIS for an episode of “Power Puff Girls” or “Bluey.” He taught Jeremiah, Summer and Joshua how to fish, and they always looked forward to making pumpkin pie with Grandpa. On Mother’s Day, he helped June plant petunia baskets for her Mom and Grandma. Little Avery was just getting to know him.

Mike was vexed by mobility issues in recent years, but with physical therapy in early 2026, he was starting to feel more like his old self. In the past few months, he pressure washed the driveway, finished an intricate wooden dining table he’d been working on for years, resurfaced the deck, hauled brush, hauled topsoil and compost, designed and nearly completed two new deer-proof garden boxes and prepped the lawn for seeding.

The morning he fell ill with a stroke, he had been out in the garden talking about plans for the next project and the next and the next. In the ambulance, on the way to the hospital, he talked about mowing the lawn. Five days later, he died at Tacoma General Hospital.

We, his family, are glad he didn’t linger in pain and disability. We are deeply grateful to the TG staff for the excellent care he received. Thank you to family and friends who have supported us as we adjust to life without Mike, Dad, Grandpa.

Mike is survived by his wife Christina Henry; son Alex Henry (Katie Ortner-Henry); daughter Rose Roush (Tim Roush); son Daniel Henry (Tessa Pepper); grandchildren Jeremiah, Summer and Joshua Roush, and Juniper and Avery Henry; and sisters Joyce Meade and Barbara Henry.

A celebration of Mike’s life will be at 10:30 a.m. July 13 at Rill’s Life Tribute Center, 1151 Mitchell Ave., Port Orchard WA 98366.