Paul H. Henson

(1925-1997) born near Bennet, Lancaster County, lived in Lincoln. Electrical engineer, corporate executive, pioneered the first nationwide fiber-optic telephone network in the 1980s, a data transmission system that became known as the first artery of the so-called information highway; during 24 years as his company's leader, it grew from a rural, independent telephone business with $100 million annual revenue into an $8 billion operation eventually called the Sprint Corporation; inducted into National Business Hall of Fame in 1999. Consult Sunday /Omaha/ World Herald Magazine of the Midlands, April 15, 1982, pp. 4-5 and International Directory of Company Histories, Vol 5 (St. James Press, 1992) 344-347 and New York Times obituary, April 15, 1997, p. B-11 and Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Vol 5 (Charles Scribner Sons, 2002) 258-259.

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