Henry, Harriet P.

Harriet Putnam Henry was born in 1923 in Ashland, Kentucky. She graduated from Smith College in 1945 and earned a J.D. degree in 1954 from George Washington University School of Law. She came to Maine in 1958 and became active in many civic and charitable organizations. She worked to establish the Portland Housing Authority and served as its chair. She was also active in the Portland League of Women Voters, serving as its president from 1963 to 1965 and as chair of its tax committee during the campaign to establish a state income tax in Maine in the mid-1960's. In 1968 she became research director of a project launched under the Office of Sea Grant Programs and the University of Maine Law School to make a study of all Maine law affecting the state's marine resources including fishery regulations, restriction on and use of estuaries, restrictions on industry, shore property zoning, and regulation and restriction of recreational activities. This project resulted in a four-volume study entitled Maine Law Affecting Marine Resources, published in 1969-1970. In 1973 Henry became Maine's first woman judge, appointed by Governor Kenneth Curtis as Judge-at-Large in the Maine District Court. She retired from the District Court in 1990. In 1990-1994, she served as chair of the Commission to Study the Future of Maine's Courts.