Gerard Henry, who died suddenly on August 2nd in St Vincent's Hospital after a short illness, was one of the great commercial property dealmakers.
Born in 1929 and educated at the Presentation College in Bray, Co Wicklow, Mr Henry entered the property industry in 1947 as an apprentice at Harry Connolly & Son.
He joined Lisney in 1950 as one of its first employees and went on to become a partner in the firm, heading its commercial division.
In the mid-1980s he left Lisney to pursue his interest in development but was persuaded by Hugh Hamilton to join Hamilton & Hamilton Estates. Mr Henry was a founding member of Hamilton Osborne King, which was formed in a merger between Hamilton & Hamilton and Osborne King & Megran.
During his career he sold a lot of development land and buildings for religious orders and the Arch Diocese of Dublin.
A friend of the late P.V. Doyle, in 1999 he sold £33 million worth of properties for the Doyle family.
Other notable deals include the sale of 3.5 acres of the Mount St Anne's convent grounds at Milltown last year for £9 million - virtually the same amount paid five years before for an adjoining 18 acres - and the sale of the 12.1 acre Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham to Zoe Developments for £14 million in 1999.
After his retirement last year, he joined Farley Property as a consultant where he remained until his recent death. Mr Henry will be remembered more recently for his handling of the sale of a 14.5 acre development site at Merrion Road, Dublin 4, for which a consortium paid a record price of £36 million.
He is survived by his wife Nuala and his daughter Tara, who is also in the property industry.
