As Michigan’s newly established integrated bar association was settling into its new role in late 1935, circuit court judge and association secretary Glenn C. Gillespie went to visit Henry Woolfenden. Given that Gillespie was serving in the Sixth Circuit Court and Woolfenden had most likely argued cases there, the two likely knew each other well, but it was not a social visit.

Instead, Gillespie went on about the new statewide legal organization and spent a good hour telling Woolfenden about “all the problems” the organization was dealing with and how it was completely overwhelmed, even as governing commissioners were offering their extra time.¹ At the end of the chat, Gillespie offered Woolfenden a job as the organization’s first executive.² If Woolfenden’s recollection of the events is to be believed, Gillespie was not the best salesman. And Woolfenden knew a bad pitch when he heard one.

Henry Lumsden Woolfenden Jr. was descended from successful salesmen. His grandfather, Joseph Bedale Woolfenden, emigrated from England in the 1860s³ and eventually settled in Detroit, where he ended up partnering with other dry goods merchants to found the Elliott-Taylor-Woolfenden Company.⁴ Photographs in the Detroit Public Library’s digital collections show a stunning five-story department store on Woodward Avenue, and Detroit Free Press issues from that era are peppered with ads for Elliott-Taylor-Woolfenden sales on trimmed hats, house slippers, and electric lamps.⁵

Joseph Woolfenden’s oldest son, Henry Sr., was born in 1874.⁶ Henry Sr. was highly educated, earning a bachelor’s degree in science, a master’s degree in science, and an electrical engineering degree in an eight-year span.⁷ He worked for a local manufacturing business before moving his small family to Colorado to head the Denver office of Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing, a heavy machinery company with a Midwestern presence.⁸ Henry Jr. was born in Denver on Nov. 25, 1906.⁹

And perhaps the Woolfendens would have stayed in Colorado if the Midwestern branch hadn’t summoned them home. Joseph Woolfenden became ill and, presumably, Henry Woolfenden Sr. returned to Michigan to help with the family business.

Henry Woolfenden Jr. finished his high school education in Detroit and enrolled at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1925.¹⁰ Given the family predilection toward manufacturing and mercantile, it’d be interesting to know why the younger Woolfenden eschewed that path and decided to go to law school but, obviously, it was an excellent fit. He graduated from the Detroit College of Law in 1929 and then passed the bar exam.

On Jan. 29, 1930, Woolfenden was one of 23 others sworn into the bar by Judge Arthur Tuttle.¹1 By 1935, Woolfenden had settled in Pontiac, where he was happily married, the father of two young daughters, and operating a successful law practice. And that’s when Judge Gillespie came calling.

When interviewed in connection with the 50th anniversary of the State Bar of Michigan, Woolfenden vividly recalled the visit from Gillespie. After a lengthy discussion, Woolfenden informed the judge that he was not interested in either taking a pay cut or a lengthy commute (and possibly a move) to Lansing. And while Gillespie may not have been the best salesman, he was an excellent judge of character. He persisted, and Woolfenden agreed to a two-week trial period as the State Bar of Michigan’s first executive.¹²

Of course, Woolfenden was right: It was a long commute, and it wasn’t long before he moved his family to the Lansing area.¹³ But the judge was even more right: Woolfenden was a perfect fit for the job and for the State Bar. The son and grandson of salesmen, he traveled across the state and sold the concept and purpose of an integrated, mandatory bar not only for “the many services and benefits available to lawyers through their State Bar membership”¹⁴ but for the protection of the public they all served. It wasn’t long before members knew him simply as “Henry from the Lansing office.”¹⁵

In the end, Woolfenden’s two-week trial period lasted 364 weeks, officially ending on Jan. 1, 1943. But in a way, it lasted a lifetime: he never really left the State Bar. Even when he worked at different firms and associations,¹⁶ he always maintained an interest in State Bar activities.¹⁷ When he wasn’t employed by the State Bar, he volunteered. As an example, he made a seamless transition from organizing publication of the Michigan Bar Journal as SBM executive secretary to serving on the Michigan State Bar Journal Committee as a volunteer.¹⁸ In 1950, he was elected to the American Bar Association House of Delegates.¹⁹ And surely it was no surprise when he was elected to the SBM Board of Commissioners in 1951.

In fact, nearly two decades after he first became known to State Bar members as “Henry in the Lansing office,” Gillespie introduced Woolfenden as the Bar’s newly inaugurated 20th president. He remains the only former State Bar of Michigan executive to later serve as its president.²⁰

When Woolfenden died in 1988, his wife, Helen, summarized his life simply, stating that “He was first and foremost a lawyer.”²¹ One could also claim that he was first and foremost a State Bar of Michigan lawyer.