....progressed through every level of management, the former Steinway CEO enjoyed  perhaps the broadest perspective of any piano executive in memory. This unique vantage point, combined with his unfailingly gracious manner, gift for storytelling, and broad sense of history made him the piano industry’s most compelling ambassador during the past three decades after he retired from active management.
Born in Manhattan in 1915, Henry had what he described as a “carefree childhood” as one of six children. After graduating from Harvard in 1937 with degrees in history and German, he joined the family business. In keeping with the longstanding  tradition, his first job was apprenticing on the factory floor. Ironically, the company’s straitened circumstances and drastically reduced factory output during the Great Depression helped enhance his piano-building education. As he recalled in a 1988 Music Trades interview, “We were down to a skeletal staff of the oldest and most experienced factory men. They also had a lot of time on their hands, and they were able to teach me the fine points of piano-building, from the lumber yard to final regulation.”
Three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order suspending production of all civilian products. By June of 1942  Steinway secured a military contract to build wings for an aircraft called the CG -4A (for combat glider). During World War II, Henry was assigned to the Army Counter Intelligence Corps and stationed in Manhattan, where he could still participate in company management. Along the way he developed a lifelong fascination with gliders and wooden aircraft—photos of the CG-4A and similar craft adorned the walls of his office at Steinway Hall.
In 1948 Henry succeeded Paul Bilhuber as manager of the Steinway factories and almost immediately began pressing for a complete factory reorganization. At the time, the company had plants at Steinway Place and Ditmars Avenue in Long Island City, with annual production capacity of 10,000 units. Sales in 1948 stood at 1,600 units and the company was losing large sums. Bucking family members and management, Henry disposed of excess capacity and consolidated operations in single facility in Long Island City. In 1954 he was made president of the company.
By 1958 Steinway had firmly returned to the black. Over the next five years its market share of the U.S. grand business increased from 18% to 29%, and the Hamburg plant was restored. By 1960 Steinway & Sons was once again a healthy enterprise, with net profits of $521,000 on sales of $9.6 million.
In 1971 Henry engineered the sale of Steinway & Sons to CBS Broadcasting for $20 million to placate shareholders who wanted cash and because none of the next generation of Steinways had expressed interest in becoming involved in the piano business. He retired as Steinway CEO in 1977 but remained with the company as a consultant and goodwill ambassador until his death.
Henry is survived by his wife Polly; sons William, Daniel, and Henry; and daughters Kate and Susan.