Henry C. Alting
For more than 30 years, Henry Alting dedicated himself to improving the lives of the less-fortunate. It was a lifelong passion that grew from personal experience.
He was born May 3, in Djakarta, Indonesia, the son of Zeno and Cornelia Carpentier-Alting. The family suffered great hardship during World War II, interned in concentration camps by the Japanese for almost four years attending school in the Netherlands before returning to Djakarta in 1952.
Shortly after his marriage in 1954, Alting immigrated to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1960. He was proud to be an American and for the next several decades worked hard to improve the quality of life for less fortunate citizens.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Pace College in New York, and his master’s degree for the University of Michigan. His graduate studies focused on adult and community education, which would help prepare him for his work in the ear on poverty – the cause to which he would dedicate the next 20 years of his life.
For 12 years, Alting served as the executive director of the Michigan Community Action Agency Association (MCAAA). He loved his work, which included lobbying in Lansing on behalf of community action agencies across the state. He petitioned for funding of special programs and services for the economically disadvantaged.
In 1982, he joined to Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., or MichCon, as manager of constituent group relations. He worked out of the Detroit office until his death in 1996 after a two-year battle with cancer. His hard work on behalf of the less fortunate has left a permanent impression on several community service agencies, including the Detroit United Way and Washtenaw County Employment Training and Community Service Agency.
We honor Henry Alting today as a founding member of the Heat and Warmth Fund of Detroit and the Campaign to Keep Michigan Warm, as well as an original member of the National Fuel Funds Network Board of Directors. During his tenure he served as the Board’s corresponding secretary, membership chairperson and newsletter editor.
Deeply committed to community action and grassroots organizing, Alting believed that NFFN could provide valuable support to state and regional coalitions helping to honor his memory, NFFN created the Henry C. Alting Fund in 1997 to support state-level energy assistance coalition-building.