History

Henry Albert Tienken

  Henry Albert Tienken was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1887, attended New York University in the early 1900's, and graduated in 1909 with a degree of Bachelor of Commercial Studies.

He departed from the United States in 1910 to work as an accountant for an American oil company with operations in the Chicago area of Argentina, and to the best recollections of his son, remained in Argentina until 1918. In 1918, he became a partner in a company Wise and Tienken, a lumber firm on the Northern part of the river, Tornagaleones, in Chile. In the summer of 1919, he returned for a six-month visit to the United States, his only and last trip to his homeland.

In 1920 "Hat," as he was called by his friends, married Emily Lilley Hazelton, daughter of a British Merchant Marine Captain, and out of this marriage were born four sons and a daughter. Two of his sons became members of Delta Sigma Pi; William Henry Tienken was initiated by the Delta Mu Chapter at the University of the Americans in Mexico City and George H. Tienken was initiated as member of Kappa Chapter at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Hat" traveled extensively and served in a variety of positions throughout South America. He became quite ill with a heart condition late in 1943, and in January of 1949, Henry Albert Tienken died and was buried in Oruro, Bolivia.

He enjoyed tremendous love, respect and admiration from all of his sons. He philosophy was very basic. He did not believe in violence. He was a believer in talking things out. He enjoyed people. He loved reading, music, sports and his cigars. He was a deep man with a rich inner life with never surfaced for others to see. Receiving many undeserved knocks from fate, he remained confident and pleasant. To him the great gifts of life were trusting God, and physical, mental, and moral strength and health.