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Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: December 03, 2015

Hensley sure had a way with words

I've never seen anyone die on Facebook before. But for Richard Hensley, it seemed oddly appropriate to have such a platform to chronicle his two-year battle with colon cancer.

Hensley, who grew up in Valley Center and had a rather distinguished career in journalism, died Dec. 1. He was 55 years old.

On Facebook the past 24 months, Richard was frank about his illness and often blunt about people's reaction to it, but he was always witty. I'm not sure how much it meant to Richard, but all of his posts during the past couple of years sure helped the hundreds of us who were helpless to do anything about it. We had a backrow seat to his display of courage and honesty in the face of what had to be physical and psychological torture.

Richard will be missed.

One of his Facebook friends said this: "Richard inspired many hearts with his ability to maintain his sense of humor while eloquently expressing a mix of joy, suffering, grief, acceptance and hope. I'll miss reading about his perspective on the world."

I met Richard a couple of times during the past decade. Though Valley Center was his hometown, Florida was his home as long as I knew him.

Richard, who graduated from Valley Center High School in 1978 and from Wichita State University in 1993, worked for The News many years ago. I was told this week that he also worked at The Newton Kansan, where I was employed for several years before coming to Valley Center.

Richard edited newspapers in Montana, Minnesota and Oregon before going to the Highlands Today, a daily newspaper in Sebring, Fla., in 2003. He was editor and later publisher.

Richard wrote a couple of columns for us recently. Man, he had a way with words.

In one of them, Richard reminisced about the Valley Center Fall Festival.

"In my semi-cloistered childhood world only three annual events really captured my attention and required planning," he wrote in 2011. "Christmas was one of those for obvious reasons. July 4 was a personal favorite as well. Any model car or plane I'd built during the year had a 75 to 80 percent chance of destruction on that holiday. The Fall Festival is right there as well. Over the months I saved my pennies and hunted empty pop bottles so I'd have some spending money for the festival."

He wrote with anticipation of attending the festival for the first time in several years.

"I can't wait to see the folks who populated my Fall Festival memories, but I probably won't recognize them right away," he said. "They won't recognize me, either. Decades, pounds, hair color and hair quantity, as well as plenty of lines and wrinkles will make it a bit more difficult, but the eyes always give us away to our friends."

Richard's writing was elegant in its simplicity. It reminded me of the way former News publisher Les Anderson wrote. You always understood what they meant. It was like they were merely having a conversation with you.

Richard also wrote a piece about the blizzard of 1971.

"Give an artist a blank slate and you get a masterpiece," he said. "Give a chef quality ingredients and you get a gastronomic delight. Give several thousand kids one of the biggest blizzards in Kansas history and you get a playground no designer could ever devise. That's how it was Feb. 21, 1971. On that day Valley Center became a real-life snow globe that few of us will forget."

This world sure will miss Richard Hensley.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821, news@arkvalleynews.com or on Facebook.




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