Pat Henning

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Pat Henning

Pat Henning may not have lived in Mt. Airy longer than any other Good Neighbor. It is possible, however, that in her thirty-two years in the community, no one has been more deeply connected to a greater variety of important projects and institutions. But, when she looks back to her early years in Mt. Airy, it is her own block that first comes to mind. “When I first moved here my activities were right on the block. We really have a wonderful block and did a lot of things together. Then I volunteered for WMAN.”

Pat is the longest serving member of the board of WMAN. She began, she recalls, doing “membership stuff” and then got involved in issues of education. Among her many educational activities, Pat helped develop the Mt. Airy Learning Tree, which initially was supported by WMAN and EMAN. Pat has been involved in too many other WMAN projects to mention here. But the most impressive one is her founding and editing the Mt. Airy Express when it was owned and published by WMAN. Pat recognized just how important a newspaper is to the creation of a vibrant and active community and, in creating the paper, she played a major role in making Mt. Airy what it is today.

Journalism is sometimes called the first, rough draft of history. So it is not surprising that Pat has become the foremost proponent of studying our local history. She founded the Mt. Airy Historical Awareness Committee and was the prime mover of the oral history project. Pat was largely responsible for having Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy placed on the National Register of Historic Districts. She has lead hundreds of people on tours or drawn them to other events on the history of our community. Pat has written a number of articles on and historical overviews of Mt. Airy and WMAN. And she is the compiler of an exhaustive bibliography on Mt. Airy, “Mt. Airy in Print.” She is currently “working on the new edition of the bibliography. I am trying to develop a bit of narrative so that people can get a feel for how the popular press has depicted the community.” Just last March, Pat was the co-chair with Laura Siena, of the well attended, educational, and inspiring forum, Healing History: The Story of Racial Integration.

Reflecting on her activities Pat says, “It is an easy community to be involved in. It is usually fun. And there are such interesting people doing interesting things here. You get a good reception when you make suggestions.” From her involvement Pat has received “mainly a sense of being part of a community. That is very important to me.” She adds, “I have made a lot of friends. I have learned a lot. I have had the pleasure of seeing some things come to fruition. I think I have gotten a lot more out of it than the community has.”