By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
HISTORIAN
Mary Putnam Henck, after whom the Rim of the World Unified School District’s Intermediate School in Lake Arrowhead was named in 1969, was a very active person her whole life. The naming of the school was a well-earned honor for a well-lived life helping others, and making a difference, living a life of accomplishments.
Mary Putnam had reddish auburn hair and brown eyes. She was quite full of energy and quite social, and never afraid of having an opinion nor fearful of expressing it. Before moving to the mountain, Mary Putnam was a charter member of the Sierra Club and was one of the first women to climb Mt. Whitney, shockingly wearing pants for the hike.
Kaki Henck was a champion downhill skier.
She was a graduate of UC Berkeley with honors at the age of 20, studying both English and Latin. She was hired as an English teacher for Los Angeles High School and then at Poly High. She was then selected to be the women’s vice principal for Manual Arts High School when it opened, where she started a club called Girls League which continues on in high schools even today. While she was at Manual Arts High, both the future governor of California, Goodwin Knight, and a future mayor of Los Angeles, Buren Fritz, attended the school. In 1915 when Jefferson High was opened, again she was chosen as the vice principal, one of the first female VPs in the entire Los Angeles School District.
Mary was a secretary for the suffragette movement, lobbying for the vote for women in the Los Angeles area. She attended the first inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., marching in a suffrage protest parade the day before on March 3, 1913.
She knew prominent people, including Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst, and Dean Witter and Edith Jordon, whose father was the provost of Stanford University. She was well-liked and so well respected during those years it was even suggested that she run for governor of California.
During the summers she was a world traveler, traveling one year to Egypt, where she climbed to the top of the highest pyramid, which was unusual for a woman. She also took two trips around the world with her sister, Dr. Catherine Putnam, who was a medical doctor. During a train trip to Mexico, an American passenger, Mrs. Moore, became ill. Mary went to assist her. Her husband, Dr. Moore, was the first president of U.C.L.A. and they became lifelong friends.
Mary Putnam met Joseph Henck while both were on separate family camping vacations to Big Bear in 1914. He was six years her junior but, after a three-year courtship, they married on July 10, 1917, and moved to a ranch in Hemet. Ten months later their first child of four children, J. Putnam Henck, was born.
Mary Putnam Henck.
Despite pregnancies, Mary continued to be involved with her community. While in Hemet she suggested to the Hemet Chamber of Commerce to put on a community pageant inspired by the book Ramona, written by Helen Hunt, which was based on a true incident which had occurred in the Hemet area. The first Ramona pageant was produced in 1923.
In May of 1923, at age 40, Mary Henck moved to the mountains, which was after Joseph had installed flush plumbing by building an addition onto the old Kuffel homestead they bought. By then, she had three children and was pregnant again, insisting on running water before moving them to the mountain.
Joseph Henck had come to Skyforest in 1922 to develop the area, with his brother and father as financial backers. After purchasing 440 acres, he created lots for the subdivision. He enjoyed using the bulldozer putting in the roads and small ponds.
He opened the J.E. Henck Mercantile in 1925 which was the only store on Rim of the World Drive. At that time there were not many roads along the south side of the rim. Electricity finally arrived in Skyforest in 1928.
The Henck family were among the early skiers in the area. Edi Jaun, a Swiss man in charge of the boats on Lake Arrowhead during the summers, popularized the idea of skiing on the mountain. Joe Henck bought each family member a pair of skis for Christmas 1925. All Henck family members skied everywhere as transportation during the winter, including Mary. On February 22, 1926, while tobogganing by moonlight Mary broke her collarbone, but it didn’t slow her down, much.
Putnam remembered as a teen checking phone lines on skis after every snowstorm. He also enjoyed skiing downhill at Fish Camp, which later became Snow Valley. His sister, Katherine (Kaki) Henck, became the California state skiing champion in downhill, holding the record at Sun Valley from 1942 through 1962.
Suffragettes with Mary Putnam Henck.
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