WESTFIELD: Henry O. Wefing Jr., a Westfield State University professor, died May 21, 2015, at home from lung cancer. Mr. Wefing joined the Westfield State faculty in 1985 and taught journalism courses until 2015.
In 2007, he established an organic garden behind Westfield State’s administration building, the Horace Mann Center. The vegetables and herbs grown there were distributed by the Westfield Food Pantry. He also helped the Food Pantry to establish its own garden plot on the same land in 2012.
Before coming to Westfield State, he spent 20 years in the newspaper business. He began his newspaper career with a Dow Jones summer internship at The Bayonne Times in Bayonne, NJ, while he was a student at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, NJ. He was also the editor of the student newspaper at St. Peter’s. He later worked full-time for several years at The Bayonne Times, at the Herald-News in Passaic, NJ, and The Jersey Journal in Jersey City, NJ. He also taught early in his career at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and at Norwich University in Northfield, VT.
Mr. Wefing moved in 1972 from New Jersey to Durham, NC, where he joined the staff of the Durham Morning Herald. His jobs at the Durham newspaper included education reporter, business editor, state editor, and editorial writer. During his time in North Carolina, he also spent a year as associate director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research in Raleigh.
A native of Kearny, NJ, he was the son of the late Henry O. Wefing Sr., a writer and editor for CBS News in New York, and Freda Heiart Wefing, a secretary for a decade after her marriage at the Bell Laboratories in New York. He was a graduate of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, NJ. He had a bachelor’s degree from St. Peter’s, a master’s degree from Duke University, and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
In addition to his interest in gardening, he loved sports. He ran track and played tennis in high school. At St. Peter’s College, he was a member of the tennis and soccer teams. During his years in North Carolina, he played softball and soccer and ran in a number of road races. His athletic passion at Westfield State was noon pick-up basketball, which he frequently helped to organize. He played noon hoops into his 70s. For a decade, he, his two oldest children and his son-in-law made up a foursome in the annual charity golf tournament sponsored by the Carson Center for Human Services in Westfield.
He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Sandidge of Westfield; two sons, Erich Wefing and his wife, Kirsten Stadheim, of Wilmette, IL, and Jay Sandidge of Westfield; four daughters, Mrs. Laura Brady and her husband, Matthew, of Basking Ridge, NJ; Katherine Butler of Hatfield, MA; Mandy Sandidge of Westfield, and Rachel Sandidge of Westfield; by his former wife, Barbara Wefing of Morristown, NJ; his brother, John Wefing and his wife, Dorothea, of Montclair, NJ, and seven grandchildren, Kyle, Ethan, and Owen Brady of Basking Ridge, Ingrid and Eleanor Wefing of Wilmette, Rylee Sandidge of Westfield, and Skylar Small of Westfield.
A memorial event will be held at 2 pm on May 29 at Westfield State University. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Westfield Food Pantry, 101 Meadow Street, Westfield, MA 01085, the Catholic Worker, 36 East First Street, New York, NY 10003, or the Northeast Organic Farming Association, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005. The family would like to thank the staff at the Governor’s Center and the Noble Visiting Nurse and Hospice for their kind care and amazing support for him at the end of his life.
