REMEMBERING HENRY
We will be posting memories about Henry here over the next few weeks.
Christophe’s memories:
I have two stories about Henry to share today. One when Henry was fifteen and one when he was nineteen.
In 2008 Henry and I travelled to France to empty our house prior to its sale.
You can experience this trip for yourself here: https://henryarmero.com/henry-and-dads-big-adventure/
The plan was to spend a couple of days at the house dividing everything into what was to be shipped to the US, what was to be given away and what was to be thrown away. To cut a long story short it was a hectic time but we managed to get it all done. While I was dealing with the movers Henry would wander around the property.
For my birthday later that year Henry presented me with a disk on which was a file labelled Menerbes (the town in which our house was). If you opened it, a photograph appeared of the long drive down to the house on which was superimposed an arrow. If you clicked that arrow it took you to the next place which was the front of the house and there were two more arrows. Henry had programmed a walking tour of the house. It was very thorough and such a great souvenir of the place. I had no idea he could do that and online house tours only really became common 14 years later during the pandemic.
If anyone reading this has any idea how I could share it on the Museum please get in touch.
The second story is bittersweet. In the summer of 2012 between his freshman and sophomore years at Carnegie Mellon, Henry got an internship at nVidia. It was not the household name it is now but was well known among gamers and computer scientists. Henry was studying a BCSA (a sort of dual major combining Art and Computer Science). NVidia did not provide the interns with accommodation but there was a message board through which that could be arranged with other interns. A few weeks before heading off for California, however, he did not have anywhere to stay so we booked him into a hotel.
You can read about his adventures here: https://henryarmero.com/portfolio/oven-free/
Henry soon realized that if he stayed there for the whole 12 weeks he would not save any money from his hard work. I must admit I was worried about the whole situation and toyed with flying out to help him find somewhere to live. However Henry was not to be underestimated. Before long he had rented a corner in someone’s living room and bought a blow up mattress so he was all set. Henry didn’t drive, though, and to this day I have no idea how he got to work or went to buy groceries. Apparently Henry was quite popular and one anecdote I heard recounts how at a barbecue with Jensen Huang, Henry appeared with dozens of flags sticking out of his hair.
Within six months he was dead and I have never been sure if his experience at nVidia was a contributing factor. That said he did leave a mark. The following summer one of Henry’s friends got in touch with me to say that during his nVidia internship in 2013, while he was doing some coding, he came across a section that could only have been written by Henry in his inimitable quirky style. So, deep in the monster that is nVidia there is a little bit of Henry.
More stories to come.
If you haven’t already. please send in your stories and we will be adding them here. We have stickers and patches designed by Henry’s brother Will that we will send to all contributors that want one.
