Keith Henney

Biography

Keith Henney (IRE Associate, 1918; Member, 1926; Senior Member, 1943: and Fellow, 1943) was born in McComb, Ohio, on 28 October 1896. He received the B.A. degree from Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, and the M.A. degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1925.

In 1912, Henney had his first experience with radio via a crystal detector and a two-slide tuner. He had his first experience in publishing in Marion, Ohio, where he was a cub reporter on the anti-Harding daily paper. His radio experience continued by means of rotary spark gaps, Thordarson 1-kw transformers, and glass plate condensers in his amateur station 8ZD. He remained a radio amateur, and in 1962, he was operating W1QGU in New Hampshire and K2BH in New York.

In 1923, Henney joined the technical staff of the Western Electric Company. The next five years were spent developing a radio laboratory for Doubleday Doran & Company, publishers of "Radio Broadcast." In 1929, he published his first book, "Principles of Radio," and in 1962, it reached the sixth edition. He became Associate Editor of "Electronics" upon its founding by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., founded "Electronics," in 1930, and appointed Henney Associate Editor. The publisher named him Managing Editor in 1934; Editor-in-Chief in 1935; and Consulting Editor in 1946. The following year (1947) he became Editor of "Nucleonics and retired from McGraw-Hill in 1961.

Henney edited "Radio Engineering Handbook" (1933), which reached its fifth edition by 1962. He spent his career publishing and editing a variety of technical books related to radio, electronics, and photography. He published "Electron Tubes in Industry" (1934) and "Color Photography for the Amateur" (1938) and co-edited the "Handbook of Photography" (1939).

In 1962, Henney was a member of the Harvard Club of New York City; a Fellow of the IRE; a Fellow and Past President of the Radio Club of America, and an Associate of the Photographic Society of America. He served as a Director of the IRE from 1945 to 1948. The IRE awarded Henney a plaque at the 1944 Rochester Fall meeting for "His many years of unselfish service to the radio and electronics industries through the technical press."