By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mr. Lurie

Henry A. Lurie pioneered improvements to food and meat processing facilities in the Midwest.

For more than three decades his designs met increasingly tough FDA standards, and his expertise was requested in Japan, China, South America and the Caribbean.

Mr. Lurie, 79, died of cancer Mondayat his East Walnut Hills home.

"He was a very serious engineer who was involved in trying to provide better food for mankind," said his wife, Suzanne.

"He created a better product - that was meat. His business life was serious in that respect (and) he was international in his reach."

But Mr. Lurie's No. 1 concern was his family. "He was a great believer in providing not only monetarily, but psychologically with a sense of value and instruction and direction for his children," his wife said.

And "there was a joy for him in golf and fishing and boating. He had a nice balance."

A Cincinnati native, Mr. Lurie grew up in Avondale and graduated from Walnut Hills High School.

After serving as a lieutenant in the European Theater during World War II, he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947. Two years later he received a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University.

He went to work as a plant engineer for F. Kahn & Son in Cincinnati, having been hired by the company's president, Milton Schloss.

It was Schloss who encouraged Mr. Lurie to start his own consulting firm, which he did in 1954. He retired from Henry A. Lurie & Associates in 1993. Today the engineering, architectural and construction firm is known as Hendon Redmond.

Mr. Lurie was a leader of the American Meat Institute, which recruited him to write a textbook for engineering students. His work, Refrigeration for Meat Processing Plants, was published in 1966.

He served on the boards of Jewish Hospital and the Dan Beard Council of the Boy Scouts of America and was an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

In retirement, as captain of his boat, Good Days IV, he spent many hours exploring the waters of the western shore of Florida.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters, Sally A. Minkow of Laconia, N.H., and Deborah L. Hale of Vineyard Haven, Mass.; three sons, Robert S. Lurie of Lexington, Mass., Greg McDonald of Louisville and Ted McDonald of Tyler, Texas; a brother, Max Lurie of Amberley Village; and eight grandchildren.

Services have been held. Burial was at United Jewish Cemetery in Montgomery.

Memorials: Suzanne and Henry Lurie Cancer Fund, Barrett Cancer Center, UC Medical Center, P.O. Box 670544, Cincinnati 45267-0544.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com