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Remembering V.I. Educator Vincent Henley

His face – and educational legacy – are well known within the community. Gardening at Gladys Abraham, chess club, and swimming classes at John Brewer’s Bay on Saturdays – for students across St. Thomas, Vincent Henley was an inspiration, and the news of his death Sunday struck a solemn chord for many.

Along with teaching swimming classes on the weekends for children and adults, Henley was also a part-time lifeguard. (Submitted photo)

“He was an incredible educator – he genuinely loved our children,” said Addelita Cancryn Intermediate and Junior High School Principal Lisa Hassell-Forde Sunday night.

For more than a decade, the two worked together to make programs at Gladys Abraham Elementary and then Cancryn come alive, from hands-on health classes to an award-winning community garden and later the weekend swimming, that not only gave “students something to do,” as Henley often said, but offered them chances to be active within the community.

“He truly made my vision come alive,” Hassell-Forde said. “Every step of the way he was with me. Every grant I wrote, every program we started, he was committed 100 percent.”

According to the V.I. Police Department, Henley was traveling on his motorcycle in the area of Estate Canaan when, according to preliminary reports, he lost control. The accident was phoned into 911 at approximately 4:10 p.m. VIPD said investigators will continue to review any available security camera footage from homes in the area to confirm the circumstances for a final report.

The Source first interviewed Henley in 2009, when Gladys Abraham’s garden was flourishing after getting off the ground the year before. Interested in teaching students about agriculture and sustainability, Henley had reached out to local businesses, the University of the Virgin Islands and the Department of Agriculture to donate everything from soil to fencing. With his nurturing hand and patience, the school was able to enter the Carnival Food Fair competition, winning first place in the plant division that year and every year afterward up to 2018.

In 2009, Gladys Abraham, under the guidance of Vincent Henley, won first place in the plant division at the Carnival Food Fair. (Source file photo)

In partnership with V.I. chess master St. Clair Wilkinson, Henley also helped to add a chess club at the school, which was part of the V.I. junior chess team that traveled in 2007 to Halkidiki, Greece, to compete in the prestigious third annual World Chess Youth Olympics.

“When I was chosen for the chess coach a few years ago,” Henley said at the time, “I knew nothing about chess. Nothing. I read all the books I could find, and I played games on the computer until I had a basic knowledge. We’d play Ulla Muller Elementary with six students, playing one hour per game.”

But the students took to it and qualified in a territorywide scholastic championship sponsored by the V.I. Chess Federation, sponsors of the trip to Greece.

After Gladys Abraham closed in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria, Henley moved on to Ulla F. Muller and Lockhart Elementary Schools, then Ivanna Eudora Kean, where he had been looking forward to reviving its aquaponics program – an initiative that he had also introduced to Gladys Abraham more than a decade before. He announced his retirement from the Department of Education this September but was still active in student health and wellness programs – particularly swimming, where he introduced a life-saving skills component – across the territory.

Henley and the Gladys Abraham swimming program were featured in Destination Magazine in 2014. (From the Department of Education archives, 2014)

Henley began his teaching career in 1989, inspired by his high school track coach, Mario Thomas, at Charlotte Amalie High School.

“I was in junior high at the time, and he was the high school coach at Charlotte Amalie,” Henley once recounted. “He told me to see him as soon as I got to high school. I did, and it changed my life, gave me direction. He is my mentor. He’s the one who got me into teaching.”

Henley continued in track and won a scholarship to Barber-Scotia College, a small school in Concord, N.C., but returned home after Hurricane Hugo to be with his family. Seeing teachers leaving the territory in the wake of the devastation, he was inspired to jump in and help fill some of the gaps.

“There is no one like him,” Hassell-Forde said Sunday. “He had just retired and had all of these plans for what he was going to do. We are genuinely going to miss this giant of a man.”

Publisher’s Note: The V.I. Source offers its condolences to Mr. Henley’s children and family, friends and loved ones.

Related link
https://stthomassource.com/content/2009/05/25/island-profile-vincent-henley/

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