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Early Monday afternoon, mourners shuffled into the two theatres of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center with jazz music ringing in their ears.
It was a memorial service held for colleagues and friends of the late Kent Hendrickson, the former associate vice chancellor for information services at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Hendrickson died Feb. 5 from injuries he sustained after poor weather conditions on Interstate 80 forced his vehicle to collide with oncoming traffic as he commuted from his Omaha home to the university.
Those who gathered remembered Hendrickson's love of jazz, baseball and books.
More than 250 guests came to pay their respects. They filled the theater's main auditorium and spilled into the adjacent second auditorium to watch a simulcast of the ceremony.
Barbara Couture, UNL's senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, opened the service and was followed by several speakers who eulogized Hendrickson.
"Kent was the model of patience, grace and care," Couture said. "Kent put a human face on technology. He was always thinking of ways to better serve the people who use it."
Joan Giesecke, UNL's dean of libraries, spoke next. She replaced Hendrickson as dean of libraries after he left the position in 1995 to become the vice chancellor for information services.
"He was a book collector, mostly mysteries," Giesecke said. "He had a high level of integrity and caring for people."
Pamela Holley-Wilcox, the director of information technology for information services, held back tears as she spoke about Hendrickson.
"Kent understood the importance of human relationships in his profession," she said.
Dave Spanel, the coordinator of systems and operations for information services, elaborated on Hendrickson's love for baseball's San Francisco Giants and the friendly bets they placed on baseball each year since 1995.
Hendrickson's adult son, Justin, also remembered his father's love of sports.
"Some of my best memories of my dad were attending sporting events," he said.
But, his son said, his father enjoyed what he did.
"Probably about once a year I'd ask my dad 'When do you plan to retire?'," Hendrickson's son said, "and he'd always tell me he loved his job."
marcminer@dailynebraskan.com
