Bob Henderson, an energetic high school science teacher, farmer and Haines Borough Mayor known as the father of the town's $8.7 million permanent fund, died Monday at his Allen Road homestead.

He was 95 and was suffering from an apparent lung condition.

Henderson followed a serendipitous route to Haines, arriving here at age 39. He made his mark as an enthusiastic teacher and provider of local produce, and later as a strong-willed leader who championed savings and limited government.

Years after he left office, he still managed the permanent fund. He maintained a garden into his 90s and lived alone until about a month ago. He was a stickler for keeping schedules and deadlines and a few days before his death he fretted that his income tax return would be filed under an extension.

He volunteered many years for the Southeast Alaska State Fair, Presbyterian Church and the Sheldon Museum, mentored youths interested in gardening and horsemanship, and penned a biography of pioneer horticulturist Charles Anway.

"I think he was one of the old-timers who made a real contribution here," said longtime neighbor Alan Heinrich, a retired Haines Elementary School principal. "He came and stayed and made a difference."

Henderson left his 14-acre homestead to the American Bald Eagle Foundation under the condition that it remain a single parcel for 20 years and that it be used for agriculture.

"He was inspirational," said Cheryl McRoberts, the foundation's executive director. "It would amaze me to go to his house and find him reading the Wall Street Journal on his Kindle at 95 years old."

Born in Morgantown, W.Va., on Jan. 15, 1920, Henderson was the only child of Dr. Harry and Marian Henderson. His father was a West Virginia University college professor and county agent who held a doctoral degree in dairy science and wrote books on the subject translated into 14 languages. "Bob got the royalties. The books were used all over the world," said son Tom Henderson.

As a teenager, Henderson spent summers on the university's farm, where he learned horsemanship, and accompanied his father's travels to rural areas, helping farmers and bumping down rough roads in a Model T. He later earned a degree in forestry from the university and went to work as an assistant farm forester in Weston.

Henderson joined the Coast Guard during World War II. He trained aboard the historic sailing ship Danmark, and was sent to Alaska aboard the cutter Haida, escorting a ship laying a communication cable to Adak during the Japanese occupation of the Aleutian Islands.

Henderson was aboard a vessel guarding Wrangell Narrows when a Petersburg school official came aboard looking for someone who could teach trigonometry. "That's when he started teaching," daughter Barbara Cave said this week. The school superintendent liked him and promised him a job after he finished his military hitch.

While on a ship in Skagway, he met Wilma King of Hampton, Iowa, who was working as a bank officer. They married in 1945 and lived briefly in Seattle before the Petersburg superintendent wrote again with news of a fall opening teaching math, physics and shop.

That Henderson taught shop became a family joke, said his daughter. "He got C minuses in shop. He couldn't screw a screw in straight," Cave said. What Henderson couldn't fix with duct tape he left broken or replaced with a new model, including buying new computers and Kindles, family members said.

Henderson earned an education degree from the University of Washington and a master's of science degree from Oregon State University. For fun, he took correspondence classes in calculus.

The family spent 11 years in Petersburg and owned an island there where they'd spend summers. Seeking better farming opportunities, Henderson moved on to teaching jobs in Kenai and Kodiak before settling in Haines. He bought the 'Doc' Allen farm in 1960 and taught high school science for 20 years.

"He was the best teacher I ever had," said Tom Bieleski, who graduated from Haines High School in 1969. "He made you listen. The worst students did the best in his class because he didn't teach from the book."

A 2013 tribute to Henderson at the bald eagle foundation drew several former students of Henderson's from Petersburg, who called him "the teacher of the century." They said he challenged them to learn more than they thought they could, and would throw chalk and bring in exhibits to keep their attention.

"He inspired us to embrace that math and science were fun, and that high school was a stepping stone to college and a better life," said Lonnie Heiner.

Allen's farm property was ideal for Henderson, who grew all varieties of local vegetables, plus strawberries, oats, wild hay, and sometimes corn. He raised goats, chickens, ducks, geese, hogs, turkeys, peacocks, and rabbits, and several horses. He sold his vegetables at his "Saturday Market" during summer months and delivered goat milk and eggs around town year-round.

"It consumed all his children," Cave said. "We had to work. When we weren't doing garden work, we were cleaning out the barn or chicken coop. He liked us to keep busy." Henderson sold strawberries to the Halsingland Hotel in summer and potatoes in the fall, she said. "The whole yard would be covered with potatoes we'd wash. People would come even from Juneau for them."

Henderson's five children also cut and hauled firewood to heat the house and cut hay that was hauled from the Meacock farm on Piedad Road.

Besides livestock, Henderson took in orphaned or injured moose and deer. He had an owl named Aristotle and a squirrel he found as an injured newborn that lived in the house with his family.

Henderson retired from teaching in 1979 and was elected borough Mayor a year later. His eight-year tenure as the muncipality's executive officer included creation of the borough permanent fund modeled after Alaska's, and a tax-cut deal with Petersburg sawmill owner Ed Lapeyri that brought the Chilkoot Lumber mill and more than 100 full-time jobs.

As Mayor, Henderson was a defender and advocate of the third-class borough, a form of government that held areawide powers only over education. In a history of local governments of Haines he wrote in 1981, he envisioned a "home-rule government," in which residents choose which powers the municipality wields.

Borough residents voted to combine the former City of Haines and third-class Haines Borough into a consolidated, home-rule government in 2002.

Former borough Mayor Fred Shields, who succeeded Henderson at the municipality's helm, said Henderson followed his own compass in politics. "The most important thing he taught me was that regardless of what people think, you have to do what you think is right. I tried to follow that advice."

Henderson maintained an interest in local politics and current events. During reconstruction of the Haines School in 2007, he came forward with historic plans for adding a second story on the old high school building. A lifelong investor and student of the stock market, Henderson subscribed to four national business periodicals.

He embraced new technology and wrote his Anway biography on one of the first personal computers in the mid-1980s. Recently, he was writing and researching the history of agriculture in Haines.

At a 2012 gardening conference, Henderson gave a non-stop, 90-minute presentation on local agriculture, even postulating a new theory on the origin of the locally famous Anway strawberry.

"I was captivated the entire time," said Stephanie Scott, a former Mayor who was in the audience that night. "Bob was so many things."

Henderson was preceded in death by wife Wilma. His survivors include sons Richard Henderson of San Luis Obispo, Calif. and Tom Henderson of Kake and daughters Barbara Cave of Cordova, Anne Swenson of Port Angeles, Wash., and Kathy Crenshaw of Juneau. He is also survived by five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A service for Henderson will be held 1 p.m. Saturday at the Haines Presbyterian Church. Henderson was buried at Jones Point Cemetery.