Henry Robert De Vries passed away peacefully with family by his side on June 20, 2026 in Lacey, Washington. Henry was born on September 18, 1928 at home in Medford, Massachusetts, the youngest of eight children of Dutch immigrants, John De Vries and Catherine Lenselink De Vries. Henry's family moved to nearby Arlington, where he graduated from Arlington High School in 1946. Henry attended Tufts University and graduated in 1950 with a B.S. in chemical engineering.

During summers Henry worked for the family's construction company and also spent time at the family's cottage overlooking Nantucket Sound. There, one summer day, Henry invited an Arlington girl in the cottage next door, Jane Cody, to a movie.

In 1950 Henry moved to Connecticut to take a job with the Naugatuck Chemical division of U.S. Rubber (later Uniroyal). Following Jane Cody's graduation from Cornell Nursing School in 1953, she and Henry were married on Cape Cod. They first took up residence in Watertown, Connecticut, then moved in 1956 to Woodbury, where they lived for 53 years and raised three sons. Henry retired from Uniroyal in 1997 after having served in a number of management roles. In 2009 Henry and Jane moved to a retirement community in Lacey, Washington.

Henry was active in a number of community groups while in Woodbury. In 1976 he and seven others chipped in $50 and started the Woodbury Scholarship Fund. For several years he chaired the Fund's annual Golf Tournament fund raiser. He and 12 others started the Friends of Woodbury Senior Community Center; Henry served on their Board of Directors until he and Jane moved to Washington. Henry served on the Conservation Commission and the board of Boy Scout Troop 54. He also was involved in activities supporting theWoodbury Democratic Town Committee.

At home, Henry was forever working to maintain the landscaping of what was referred to as the 'national park.' For decades of summers he successfully supplied the family with home-grown tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, and green beans. For half the summer during the 1970s and 1980s he drove to Cape Cod every weekend to join his family to helprun a motel jointly owned with his brother-in-law and sister-in-law. On occasion he and Jane would get together during the summer with their close friends the Fullers, Rothmans, and Plumbs at a lake in New Hampshire they affectionately called 'Golden Pond.'

Henry was preceded in death by his parents, all his siblings, and his wife, Jane, who passed away in 2019. He is survived by his son Tom (Marijke van Heeswijk), Paul (Sirpa Koponen), and Mark (Sarah) and by his grandchildren Saskia DeVries (Neil Rickard), Taiga Koponen, Jack DeVries, and Will DeVries.

The family would like to thank staff at the Panorama Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center in Lacey for their unstinting care of Henry over the past three years and his niece, Dorothy McDonald, for her welcome visits from Cape Cod.

Burial will be at the New North Cemetery in Woodbury, alongside Jane. Donations in Henry's memory may be made to the Woodbury Scholarship Fund Dollars for Scholars, P.O. Box 716, Woodbury, Connecticut 06798