HENSHEL, HARRY D.

HENSHEL, HARRY D. (1890–1961), U.S. industrialist and sports administrator. He was born in Rochester, New York, joined the Bulova Watch Company in Flushing, New York, in 1918, and by 1930 was one of its principal executives. Henshel devoted his spare time to sports administration; in 1911 he became chairman of the basketball committee of the Metropolitan Association of the Amateur Athletic Union. Henshel served as chairman of the United States Olympic Basketball Committee from 1952 to 1956. In World War II Henshel was a colonel with the U.S. Army in Europe. Henshel organized the U.S. Committee Sports for Israel and was a zealous worker on its behalf. He established a school of watchmaking for paraplegic war veterans. His son HARRY B. HENSHEL (1919– ), who became president of Bulova, introduced the first successful phototimer for sporting events. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Postal et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports (1965), 85f., 466. (Jesse Harold Silver)