Charles H Henry was born in Chicago, Illinois, US, and received his M.S. degree in physics in 1959 from University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in physics in 1965 from the University of Illinois. He published more than 130 technical papers during his career and was honored with the Morton Award (1999, IEEE), the Charles Hard Townes Award (1999, OSA), and the Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics (2001, AIP).

Henry received the OSA Charles Hard Townes Award “for fundamental contributions to the understanding of the optical properties of quantum wells, semiconductor lasers, and advance photonic technologies.” He was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois in 2012. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a member of Sigma Xi.

Henry retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories in 1997 as a Distinguished Member of Technical staff and used his retirement to study theoretical physics and amateur astronomy.