Patricia (Pat) Henrich
Obituary
Patricia Louise Henrich, 88, passed away on April 7, 2021 due to heart failure in Lancaster, CA. Patricia was born in Dayton, Ohio, July 31, 1932 to Ruth and Emil Henrich. She moved to the Mohave Desert with her parents in 1951. Pat quickly obtained a job as a technical librarian at the newly established Edwards Air Force Base. Patricia worked at EAFB with dedication for over 68 years retiring in 2019 as one of the longest serving civilian Air Force employees in base history. Patricia saw Edwards Air Force develop and become the center of experimental flight and space programs and became an unofficial base historian. Patricia was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Pat is survived by nephews, Mark Jacobs, Brian Jacobs, and Eric Jacobs of Huntington Beach, CA.
By Diane Betzler, Staff writer / Published August 31, 2011
Patricia Henrich, library technician, is shown in her office in Bldg. 1600. One of Edwards' longest-serving employees, Henrich is about to celebrate her 60th anniversary of working on base. (Air Force photo by Diane Betzler)
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At 79 Patricia Henrich sometimes gets
teased by co-workers about being old, but when they see her running down the
halls in Bldg. 1600 they may want to recant.
Henrich currently serves the 412th Maintenance Group as a library technician,
but during her 60 years of service at Edwards, she's held more titles than
perhaps anyone here.
"I started out working on South Base, which was main base at the time," Henrich
recalls.
She began her long-term relationship with Edwards as a clerk typist right out of
high school and at the time she never imagined the job would turn into a career
of a lifetime.
Throughout her time here, Henrich worked in organizations from base supply to
maintenance and engineering. She's pretty much done and seen it all and says the
1950s were an exciting time to work at Edwards.
"There was so much going on here, we had test pilots just beginning to fly
faster than the speed of sound and some were training to become astronauts,"
Henrich said.
Some pretty famous people, ones that most only got to read about - the ones with
"The Right Stuff" - could be seen every day on base, and Henrich got to know
some of them.
"I got to know Fitz Fulton and I still see him occasionally," she said.
Fulton was a test pilot with the Air Force and NASA. He was the project pilot on
all early tests of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft used to air launch the Space
Shuttle prototype Enterprise in the Approach and Landing Tests at Dryden. He
also flew the Boeing NB-52B airplane that launched the X-15 research aircraft
and other air-launched vehicles. That aircraft now sits proudly at Edwards'
North Gate, for all to see.
She says Fulton personified the word "gentleman."
"He was the nicest man one could ever meet," she said.
Henrich also knew Chuck Yeager and other well-known test pilots.
Henrich's career has seen 23 generals assume command of the Air Force Flight
Test Center - from the first AFFTC commander, Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd, to current
commander, Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II. She reminisces about the old days and
talks a bit about what life at Edwards was like in the early 1950s.
As a warehouse clerk, Henrich often had to go to the warehouse to check on
supplies and says to get there was a feat in itself.
"There were no roads, just dirt trails and we would have to drive the truck
through a hole in the fence to get to the trail that led to the warehouse," she
recalls with a chuckle and adds, "You think Edwards is isolated now, you should
have been here back then."
While most people have only heard or read about Pancho Barnes and the Happy
Bottom Riding Club, Henrich was here during its heyday. Although she didn't
become a personal friend of the famous aviatrix, Henrich describes the legendary
Pancho as gruff at times, but she knew Pancho well enough to say she was a woman
with a warm heart.
"She was part of the aviation greats and at the time she could go anywhere on
the base she wanted," Henrich said. Like most of the test pilots, General Boyd
had a lot of respect for Pancho and her flying skills and the two became good
friends, she said.
As the seasoned lady talks about the old days she brings the people and places
of an era long gone back to life as she opens old photo albums and describes
each person and place.
"These funny lookin' houses were called kerosene flats. That's where the
military and civilian folks lived back in the late forties and early fifties."
Henrich lived there, too, with her parents when they came out from
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1950. Her father, Emil, worked at Edwards as
an assistant chief of instrumentation.
"He was in Civil Service before they even had a Civil Service system," she said.
She talked about shopping at the only store in town, "It was called Anderson's
General Store and Charley Anderson owned it. He sold everything from brooms to
coffins." Anderson's store became the local meeting place, she said.
"He had a big pot-bellied stove in the center of the room, the guys use to meet
there, drink beer and rest their feet up on the warm stove.
Henrich shows an old photo of the original headquarters building, "It used to be
on South Base."
She shares pictures of an old base gas station, the base gym and Hanger 1600
when it was first built in 1954. She points out what used to be the base chapel
and said it was moved to Rosamond, Calif., where it now serves that community as
St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Henrich said back then the base had three clubs, an Officers Club, a
Noncommissioned Officers Club and an Airmen's Club.
"We used to frequent them all. There was nothing else to do here," she says as
she quietly looks at an old photo of her parents at a company picnic that was
held in Wrightwood, the mountains south of the base.
While going through her personal photo album it becomes apparent Henrich is a
part of Edwards' history herself.
When asked what keeps her working she says simply, "Working here keeps me
young."
She runs the parts library in Bldg. 1600. When someone in manufacturing needs to
make a part; they go to Henrich for the drawing. She calls all her co-workers
her kids.
When asked of all the people she met throughout her career years, who she
considers most memorable, she hesitates and says at first, "There were so many,
but I'm gonna say Jackie Cochran is a good contender."
Henrich's co-workers don't intend to let her 60th anniversary go by unnoticed;
they are planning on a closed luncheon celebration at Club Muroc, Dec. 12.
To Henrich it doesn't seem like 60 years since she first started working on
base.
"The time went by so fast, you wonder where it went." she said.