Fredrich J. Henningsen

Fred Henningsen, a Michigan State University graduate, served as both a 4-H and agriculture agent in Van Buren County and then county extension director in St. Joseph County before becoming district agriculture and irrigation agent. Henningsen was often consulted by other leaders and staff and after retiring in 1990, Henningsen continued for eight years as an irrigation consultant for MSU. He was appointed to the Michigan Great Lakes and Water Resource Planning Commission by then Governor Blanchard, and served on the advisory committee to the Office of Water Resources for the Department of Natural Resources. He continues to serve on the Groundwater Conservation Advisory Council for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and was recently appointed to chair the St. Joe River Basin Water Advisory Council by the Michigan DEQ. Henningsen currently serves as board member of the St. Joseph County Grange Fair and the St. Joseph County United Way. He was formerly on the Lockport Township Zoning Board and was an ex-officio member of the St. Joseph County Planning Commission. Henningsen coached Little League baseball, was a 4-H volunteer and continues to support his local 4-H awards/scholarship program and the fair livestock sale. Additionally, he was a member of the Centreville High School Curriculum Advisory Committee and hosts the St. Joseph County CTA Vocational Agriculture Program’s “Learning Laboratory” on a parcel of his farm property which is irrigated and nationally recognized. He has been awarded with the MSU Distinguished Faculty Award, Conservation Career Award, FFA Citation Award, received state legislative recognitions for his contributions to Michigan agriculture and was honored as the 1999 Volunteer of the Year by the Michigan Association of Fairs and Exhibitions.