Paul H. Henson; Developed Fiber Optics Network

Paul H. Henson, 71, whose vision about fiber optics developed into Sprint. Henson for three decades headed United Telecommunications, based in Kansas City, Mo. Born in Nebraska and educated as an engineer at the University of Nebraska, Henson saw the future of telecommunications in the new technology of lightning-speed fiber optics. He committed his independent telephone company to developing it at a cost of $2 billion, or two-thirds of the company’s annual revenue. By the mid-1980s, Henson’s small firm had a far larger fiber optics network than AT&T.; He easily attracted GTE when it looked for a partner for Sprint, which now provides long-distance telephone communications around the world. Henson began his work in Kansas City in 1959 and by 1964 was president of what was then United Utilities. Two years later, he was named chairman, a position he held until his retirement in 1990. He remained on Sprint’s board of directors until 1995. Last year, Henson was named Kansas City’s Technology Leader of the Decade. During the early 1990s, Henson headed a telephone network watchdog group appointed by the Federal Communications Commission. On Saturday in Palm Springs.