Vita – William F. Haenn
Bill Haenn was born in Darby, Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve 1946. A boyhood visit to Independence Hall sparked his lifelong passion for history. His wide-ranging knowledge of Fort Clark was acquired through an avid enthusiasm for military history, a deep love for the fort, and a singular appreciation of soldiers gained from 25 years of military service as an infantry small unit leader, and staff officer in the U.S. Army.
Bill holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education with a major in Geography, from West Chester State University, West Chester, Penn- Pennsylvania.
His military education includes Infantry Officer Candidate School, Airborne and Ranger Schools, Infantry Officer Advance Course, and Command and General Staff College. He served at various posts in the United States, and overseas in Berlin and Heidelberg Germany and the Republic of Korea. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1993.
Bill retired again in 2009 after ten years as the Chief Appraiser of the Kinney County Appraisal District.
Bill and his wife Angela live in a restored set of officers' quarters designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, in the Fort Clark National Register Historic District.
He has volunteered as a Texas Parks and Wildlife guide at Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. He is a past-president of the Fort Clark Gun Club, the Brackettville Rotary Club, the Fort Clark Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, and the Fort Clark Historical Society.
While Chair of the Kinney County Historical Commission 2005-2011 his leadership resulted in the KCHC being honored four consecutive years by the Texas Historical Commission with their prestigious Distinguished Service Award in recognition of an active and well-balanced preservation program.
In 2011 the Texas Historical Commission honored Bill personally with their “Award of Merit” in recognition of his prodigious historical documentation, continued leadership, preservation and heritage tourism promotion of the natural and built environment of Historic Fort Clark, Brackettville, Texas.
Bill is the author of the best-selling book, “Fort Clark and Brackettville Land of Heroes,” a photographic history for Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America Series.
His most recent contributions to the military history of the Lower Pecos and Big Bend regions include two feature articles for ON POINT: The Journal of Army History (Bullis’s Medal of Honor Fight at the Pecos River and a brief unit history of the Seminole Scouts) and an innovative analysis of two photographs taken at Fort Davis, Texas in 1887, published in The Journal of Big Bend Studies.
Bill currently serves as the Executive Director of the Friends of the Fort Clark Historical District, a Texas nonprofit corporation. [www.ffchd.org]