Henrik Frank Goran Langhjelm

Henrik Frank Goran Langhjelm (known as “Hank”, “Henry” or “Hen”), born in Helsinki, Finland on July 5, 1955 to Helen and Henrik Langhjelm. He passed away at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, Washington on February 19, 2016 and is survived by sons Eric and Jordan, daughter Sarah, grandchildren Desirae, Rhys, Abigail and Mackayla, brothers Nils, Rodrick and Carl, sister Carol, stepchildren Genelle, Lorraine, Richy, Joseph and Mesha, and many step-grandchildren. He was beloved by many, and touched many lives with his joviality, boisterous charm and sense of care for others. His presence, like his booming voice, filled every room he ever entered. He made friends wherever he went.

Late in 1955, the newborn son reached American shores by transatlantic sea journey, and his Finnish-born father and American mother settled the new family in Michigan, where they had met at the renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art three years earlier. Henrik spent the formative years of his life in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Southfield, and moved with his parents and four siblings to North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the beginning of his senior year in September 1972. He soon met Rosemary Steeves, whom he married and to whom his first child, Eric, was born in September 1974.

Before he reached the age of 19, young Henrik began work on the North Vancouver waterfront at McKenzie Barge and went on to develop a career as an industrial fabricator. As the story goes, he impressed the owner with his ability to read blueprints, a skill he picked up as a child leaning over the shoulder of his industrial designer father at the drafting table. His talent for leading men was recognized early, and he soon had a crew under him that included men twice his age. He worked at various ship and boat building companies in North Vancouver, and then was hired on at Canron in Vancouver, where his work contributed to such projects as the construction of the Law Courts building in downtown Vancouver and repairs on the iconic Lions Gate Bridge. His talents were later taken north to the Canadian Arctic, where he plied his trade on icebreakers.

Henrik married his second wife Tracy Durrant in 1982, to whom his second child Jordan was born nine months later in September. He was later offered a job at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, and entered service to the United States with his young son and wife in tow. He rose through the ranks and was eventually elevated to a position on the staff of a Navy captain. His only daughter, Sarah, was born to Tracy in Bremerton in August 1987.

The cause of workplace safety became the central cause of the last two decades of Henrik’s life, during which he advocated for many.

Henrik met and married Genevieve Rednall - with whom came many stepchildren - in 1997. The enlarged family moved to Port Townsend that summer when he started work at Falcon Marine. He returned to Bremerton with Jordan and Sarah in 1998, and moved to Belfair, Washington in 2003, where he lived for the remainder in his life.

In July of 2005, his first grandchild, Desirae, was born to Sarah and Bodey Destefanis. Rhys was born to Eric and his wife Heather in 2007. Abigail was born to Eric and Heather in 2009. Mackayla was born to Sarah and Bodey soon after. In spite of rapidly declining health, his beloved grandchildren - to whom he was affectionately known as “Pops” - injected untold joy into his final years.

That booming voice has fallen silent, and that ever-compelling presence is now conspicuously and painfully absent. Our lives will never be quite the same without him. But we can take comfort in the knowledge that he has been reunited with his parents and late baby brother in the loving embrace of his Redeemer.