Henry D. Onken ’53

    Henry was born in St. Louis and came to Princeton from University City Senior High School. He joined Elm Club, majored in biology, and wrote his thesis on “Purification of Luciferase.” 

He earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1958. After doing his internship and surgical residency at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, he served two years as an Army surgeon in Thailand before returning to St. Louis for plastic-surgery training at Barnes. After retiring from a career as a plastic surgeon in St. Louis in 2003, he became a docent at the St. Louis Art Museum and a medical expert for the Social Security office of disability.

Henry died Nov. 1, 2021, in St. Louis, Mo. His wife, Deborah Smith Onken, died five years earlier. They are survived by their three children, John, Michael ’87, and Katie; and six grandchildren.