Dr. Kenneth R. Henderson was a doctor of osteopathy with a passion for playing the trumpet.
Henderson, who died Jan. 9 at age 72, played the trumpet from high school until nearly the end of his life.
Among his several trumpets, he had a “pocket trumpet” only 10 inches long, which he kept on a table beside his favorite chair.
He played the instrument whenever the mood struck him, said his wife, Nancy, of Westminster.
Henderson suffered from arthritis for decades and had more than 30 surgeries, including knee and hip replacements, his wife said.
“He never complained,” said friend Gary Huggins, and the arthritis didn’t affect his ability to play the trumpet.
Henderson practiced medicine in north Denver and the Thornton-Northglenn area for 28 years and was chief of staff at Valley View Hospital and Medical Center from 1975 to 1977.
He was president of the Clear Creek Medical Society from 1984 to 1985.
Huggins, of Las Cruces, N.M., was a partner in a practice with Henderson. He said Henderson was “an excellent doctor and patients loved him for his wild sense of humor.”
Still, even in the office, a trumpet was always nearby.
Henderson played in a dance band in high school and another in college — that paid his way through school.
After moving to Colorado, he was lead trumpet in the Golden Eagle Concert Band, which gives several concerts a year. More than 40 of the nearly 50 members played at his funeral Saturday.
Henderson was a Wyoming loyalist and always had his pocket trumpet with him when the family went to its cabin at Guernsey Reservoir.
The sound echoed off the nearby mountains, and boaters would stop to listen, Huggins said.
“He wouldn’t let me play my guitar with him because I wasn’t as good a musician,” Huggins said laughing.
Henderson also took his trumpet on cruises, where he played for fellow travelers, often finding other musicians who’d brought their instruments too.
Henderson’s other pursuit was Egyptology, and he was a docent at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Kenneth R. Henderson was born on Jan. 19, 1935, in Wheatland, Wyo., and was reared in Guernsey, where he graduated from high school. He earned his pharmacy degree at the University of Wyoming.
He was a pharmacist until he entered medical school in 1961.
While a pharmacist in Tulsa, Okla., he met Nancy Davis, a student at the University of Oklahoma. They married on July 31, 1962.
He earned his degree in osteopathic medicine at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Missouri.
The Hendersons moved to Denver in 1966.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Trent, of Downey, Calif.; a daughter, Kira Piel, Parker; a sister, Zoe Offe, Aurora; two brothers, Jerry Henderson of La Grange, Calif., and M.E. Henderson of Tallmadge, Ohio; and three grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
