Emil William Henry was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 4, 1929, and attended the local public schools; the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania (1947, cum laude); Yale University (B.A., 1951); and Vanderbilt School of Law (LL.B., 1957). He spent 1951 to 1954 as a Navy gunnery officer aboard the USS Bausell, a destroyer with the Pacific fleet. Admitted to the Tennessee state bar in 1957, Mr. Henry practiced in both state and federal courts as an associate of the Memphis firm of Chandler, Manire and Chandler. He engaged in office, trial and appellate work and was made a partner of the firm one year later. Two years later he became a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Active in several Memphis civic organizations and in the Junior Bar Conference of the ABA, Mr. Henry was especially interested in the civil rights field, and in 1962 was named to the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Henry became active nationally by working in the 1960 Kennedy campaign organization; and two years later, in October, 1962, he joined other “new frontiersmen” in Washington by appointment as a member of the Federal Communications Commission. On June 2, 1963, upon the resignation of Newton Minow, he assumed the FCC chairmanship at the age of 34, the youngest man ever to be named to this position. He served until May 1, 1966, thus becoming one of the longest-serving chairmen as well. In these three years, he became known as a hard-line regulator in the Minow tradition, always mindful of the public interest and fair, if tough, in his dealings with those who influence this interest.
Henry viewed his position as chairman to be an opportunity to take advantage of the image-building done by Newton Minow. His goal was to get concrete measures adopted that would last well beyond his tenure, and his term was marked by major regulatory accomplishments relating to both broadcast stations and communications common carriers (telephone, telegraph, satellite, etc.) In the broadcast field, Henry was particularly interested in UHF television, educational television, and community antenna television. He particularly condemned loud and long commercials and bland, unvaried programming. He urged more local programming, more public information programming, and more special interest programming. He encouraged editorializing and presentation of controversy, but at the same time aimed at strong enforcement of the fairness doctrine requiring provision of equal time for both sides of an issue.
Outside the broadcast field and during Henry's tenure, major accomplishments were the establishment of a commercial communications satellite system and the nationwide reduction of long distance telephone rates in 1964. In addition, a transatlantic cable was authorized with precedent-making joint ownership by all substantial American carriers.
Mr. Henry resigned the chairmanship in 1966 to return to Tennessee and assist in the gubernatorial campaign of his friend, John Jay Hooker. He is currently (1967) affiliated with a Washington, D.C., law firm and resides in that city with his wife and children.
