There was never much doubt John Henderson would follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather in his choice of occupation.
He wanted to be an engineer from the age of 8. He would end up making a significant contribution to civil engineering in Dunedin, such as by heading up development of the Dunedin water pollution control plant, now known as the Tahuna wastewater treatment plant.
His career with the Dunedin City Council spanned more than 40 years and he supplemented this by playing an integral role in creating the Dunedin Chinese garden, Lan Yuan.
Mr Henderson was also Otago Cricket Association chairman from 1977 until 1993. He was on the New Zealand Cricket board for a decade from 1985.
In 2005, he was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to cricket and the community.
William John Henderson, known as John, was born in Invercargill on May 19, 1941. He was the eldest of four children.
His father was Jack Henderson, who had a career with the Ministry of Works. From 1939, he worked on the Milford Sound access road and Homer Tunnel and in 1940, “holing through” of the tunnel was achieved.
Fiordland was where Jack Henderson met his future wife, Airini (Rene) MacGillivray, a nurse who travelled by boat from Bluff to Milford Sound to check on the health of the road gangs.
Projects for Jack Henderson in the years ahead would include a supervisory role for construction of the Roxburgh Dam, overseeing construction of Dunedin Airport and the motorway developments to the north and south of the city.
Because of his father’s engineering work on dams and hydro projects, John Henderson’s childhood was full of moves — from Auckland to Maraetai, to Mangakino, then to Roxburgh and Dunedin.
John Henderson was conscious his grandfather, Matthew Henderson, had had his own significant contributions to Dunedin’s infrastructure. In 1914, Matthew Henderson was appointed city electrical engineer and was responsible for the Waipori hydro power scheme.
“Matthew was intimately involved with the development of both supply and reticulation of electricity to Dunedin and the Waipori scheme became a major part of his work,” his grandson wrote in a biographical piece for Engineering New Zealand.
“He oversaw the increased generation capability and managed the construction of new dams and tunnels.”
As for John Henderson, he attended Otago Boys’ High School and studied engineering at the University of Canterbury through the Dunedin City Council’s cadet scheme, graduating with a bachelor of engineering (civil) in 1962. He worked for the council and, from 1989 to 2002, for the in-house engineering surveying and project management group the council had at the time — City Consultants.
“In these positions, John was responsible for designing, managing and supervising many of the city’s significant infrastructure projects, including the Dunedin water pollution control plant … and planning to secure utility lifelines in case of civil defence emergency,” his Engineering NZ profile said.
He trained and mentored many municipal engineers.
Murray Petrie worked at the council under Mr Henderson and described him as principled.
“John was just straight up and down … good engineer, good boss,” he said.
“He was a good, clear thinker.”
Engineers had to be thorough, Mr Petrie said.
Mr Henderson had more than 30 staff at one point. This was “because he had the survey section and the roading section or the road design section and so on”.
“So it was quite a bit, as well as all the actual engineering design.”
Mr Henderson retired as technical services engineer in 2002.
He was the Dunedin Chinese Gardens Trust design manager when Lan Yuan opened in 2008.
Trust chairman Malcolm Wong said Mr Henderson was never one for the limelight and he “never seemed flustered, no matter what pressure he was under”.
“John was a great community man and his capacity to contribute in all manner of things was legendary.”
He met Ellen Miller through badminton and they married on February 8, 1969.
He was a keen gardener and was well known for his prize-winning raspberry jam, which became a family favourite.
Mr Henderson was a life member of the Otago Cricket Association. Former New Zealand cricketer and coach Warren Lees called him “the hardest worker for cricket” he had come across anywhere.
Someone else in Dunedin cricket circles was also called John Henderson, known these days as an umpire.
“He was a fine gentleman when it came to cricket and we formed a friendship as the two John Hendersons,” the umpire said.
He credited Mr Henderson with assisting development of the University Oval in Dunedin as a cricket ground and the move to host Otago games at Alexandra around Christmas and New Year.
Mr Henderson joined the Dunedin Rotary Club in 1978, had a stint as district governor and remained a Rotary member until his death. He served as club president both in Dunedin and Whanganui.
He died on September 10, 2025, in Whanganui. He was 84.
The partnership between Mr Henderson and his wife lasted more than 50 years, until Mrs Henderson died in 2022.
They had three children and seven grandchildren. — Grant Miller
JOHN HENDERSONÂ
Civil engineer