December 13, 1939 –  May 12, 2017  Fred Henley, 77, of Collinsville, Texas, passed away at his home on Friday, May 12, 2017.A Mass will be held in his honor on Saturday, May 20, 2017 at 11 AM at Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Whitesboro, Texas. A celebration of life will follow at his home. Memorial arrangements are being handled by Meador Funeral Home in Whitesboro, Texas.
Fred was born in Winona, Texas on December 13, 1939. He graduated from Gladewater High School. After being honorably discharged from the United States Navy, he finished his education with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Finance/Economics.
Fred was married to Judy (MacKenzie) Henley on July 3, 1965; they were married almost 52 years.
Fred’s career was extremely important to him; the following are the words of a former co-worker whom he mentored.
Fred started his career at Texas Instruments in an engineering capacity from 1962-1970.  From 1970-1985 he was a Quality Manager over all major quality disciplines and from 1985 until retirement in 1996 was the Manager of Quality Systems for three flagship Program Divisions. Fred was a master at customer communications, his friendly demeanor put the customer at ease, creating win-win situations for both sides. He was the first quality manager to win several coveted awards for Texas Instrument’s Defense businesses, including the first defense company to be certified to the ISO 9001 standard and to receive the National Malcolm Baldridge Award. Fred constantly drove his young managers to use fact-based decision methodologies. Quality was based on data, and “data should drive our decisions”. When trying to sell him on decisions without supporting data, Fred would famously quote the words of Dr. W. Edwards Deming “down the tubes we go” – he believed without data the path to success was grim.
He was a quality assurance entrepreneur, putting pressure on the team to think of new ways to improve the quality discipline, from new inspection techniques to automation. He received the Navy’s coveted Material Command Quality Reliability Award (The “Willoughby Award”) for innovative automated inspection processing.
Fred’s greatest accomplishment was touching the lives of so many young managers, Junior Military Officers, and young college graduates. His ability to meet an individual and understand that person’s worth was a true gift. He mentored many young men and women during his 35+ year career.  He had the pleasure of witnessing their career progression over the years, turning into COOs, Vice Presidents, Directors and Entrepreneurs. Fred has changed the landscape of life, by molding the individual, setting them on a better path to help mankind.

Fred is survived by his wife, Judy Henley: 3 children, Shannon Henley Garrett and her husband, Gene, Kevin Henley and his wife, Jenny, and Lauren Henley Lambert and her husband, Robert; 5 grandchildren: Austin, Alex and Maddie; Tyler; and Henley; 2 step-grandsons: Jaden and Brenden; and brother Don Henley and family. He was preceded in death by his parents Fred and Elizabeth Henley and his brother, Billy Henley.
In Lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (http://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/), the Lone Star Dog Ranch Rescue (https://dogranchrescue.com/), or The Independence Fund (http://independencefund.org/). Also, Fred was an avid rock collector. The family plans to build an outdoor rock memorial. If you would like to contribute, feel free to bring or send a rock to be used in the memorial.