DEPARTMENTS
IN MEMORIAM
Henry B. “Hank” Lick (pictured) served as AIHA president in 2000–2001.
BARBARA DAWSON, CIH, CSP, FAIHA, is a past president of AIHA and past chair of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene and recently retired from DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.
ROBERT LIECKFIELD JR., CIH, FAIHA, is president of CRL HSE Consulting LLC in Novi, Michigan.
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Henry B. “Hank” Lick, 1943–2024
BY BARBARA DAWSON AND ROBERT LIECKFIELD JR.
Henry B. “Hank” Lick, who served as AIHA president in 2001, passed away on Jan. 18, 2024, at the age of 80. Hank was very active in AIHA, serving on the Board of Directors from 1999 to 2002 and as a member of the Publications Committee (1981–1999), the Leadership and Management Committee (1987–1988), and the Conference Program Committee (1996–2000). He was also co-chair of the Conference Program Committee in 2001. As an acknowledgement of his outstanding professional contributions, Hank received AIHA’s Donald M. Cummings Memorial Award in 1998.
Hank’s service in the U.S. Air Force brought him from Ohio, where he was born, to Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan. He began a long career at Ford Motor Company, earning a bachelor’s degree, three master’s degrees, and a doctorate from the University of Detroit and Wayne State University. With his wife, Betty, he raised two sons, Dave and Jeff. He was a loving grandfather to seven grandchildren.
Hank completed a 32-year career at Ford in 2000. The U.S. Secretary of Labor appointed him to the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Health and Safety.
Dave Hands, CIH, FAIHA, who worked with Hank for many years, fondly remembered that Hank had a passion for industrial hygiene and always put employee health first, even when it meant giving management uncomfortable news. Hank was a strong believer in collaboration among all stakeholders when addressing worker health and safety matters. He knew that a single voice was insufficient when attempting to tackle big problems.
In his Cummings Award lecture, which he delivered at AIHce 1998 in Atlanta, Hank reflected on the evolution of occupational health and safety and his long career at Ford.
Hank was a strong believer in collaboration among all stakeholders when addressing worker health and safety matters.
He advocated for trust among business, labor, and government, and he exhorted industrial hygienists to always remember their ethical duty to workers. “Ask yourself,” he said, “will the workers you first met as you began your practice in industrial hygiene be able to hear, be able to lift their grandchildren, or be able to walk up a flight of stairs in 30 years?”
Hank’s openness to compromise was among the attributes that made him an effective professional and won the respect of people who worked with him. Maura J. Sheehan, ScD, CIH, FAIHA, recalled serving with Hank on the OSHA Standards Advisory Committee for Metalworking Fluids (MWF) from 1997 through 1999. “Hank’s insight, hard work, and kindness made my job as chairperson much easier,” she said, “and his principled approach to addressing the health risks of MWF showed courage as he was the only industry representative to vote for recommending an OSHA standard.”
“Hank’s leadership of the Industrial Hygiene and Safety Department at Ford was exemplary,” Sheehan continued. “Hank led Ford Motor Company’s efforts to reduce exposure to MWF mist and welcomed academics into Ford plants to conduct research that would assist his team in evaluating and designing effective MWF mist exposure control strategies. Personally, Hank was a patient and generous mentor to me, and I am proud to call him my friend.”
RESOURCES
AIHA Journal: “The Industrial Hygiene Paradox, Dilemmas, and a Vision for the Future” (November 1998).
Detroit Free Press: “Henry B. Lick” (January 2024).