Henri Edward Rainaud III

CHESHIRE - Henri Edward Rainaud III, 68, of Cheshire, CT, and Miami, FL, passed away suddenly from heart failure on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 following a medical procedure at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He was the loving husband and best friend of Cheryl (Walters) Rainaud.

Henri was born December 20, 1952, in Daytona Beach, FL, the son of the late Henry Edward and Marcia (Walker) Rainaud, Jr. His grandfather and namesake Henry Edward Rainaud was a renowned inventor and founder of HERCO, a Meriden, CT-based manufacturer of glass and metal lamps. Henri grew up with his parents and younger sister on their sailboat, “Dreamer,” in the Bahamas until age 14. He was an accomplished sailor and traveled the world.

He attended high school in Wilmington, VT, before studying at Central Connecticut State University. While in high school, he enjoyed skiing and worked at Mount Snow in VT. He also attended the historic music festival, “Woodstock.” He was a brilliant and creative thinker. He began his career as a printer in VT and went on to become a software developer in CT. Henri was the owner of System Consultants, LLC (founded in 1986) a Cheshire based full service software development firm specializing in custom websites, applications, web based software, documentation, procedures, and help systems. Henri has consulted for many companies in a variety of industries and was an accomplished software and database designer and developer. He served on the Cheshire Chamber of Commerce’s Technology and Fall Festival committees. Meeting the software needs of clients remained a lifelong passion, which he pursued with ingenuity, creativity and a tireless work ethic until his final days. He collaborated with Cheryl to develop online syllabi for classes at the Yale School of Medicine which form the basis for a new textbook on physical diagnosis. He is also well known for his culinary creations, many of which he documented with photographs in an online album he entitled, “en bonne sante.” In addition, Henri was an avid tennis player and a member of the Farms Country Club in Wallingford, CT.

Henri will be remembered most for his caring, selfless and social nature. He was an optimist, free spirit, and dreamer, who lived life to the fullest and continues to inspire those who knew him to do the same. He loved young people and animals, especially his beloved German Shepherd, Wolfie, and rescue cats, Tommy and Chloe. Accordingly, he helped to endow a merit based scholarship to support graduate students in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University.

His greatest joy and passion was his family. In addition to Cheryl, Henri is survived by his beloved children Katherine Theresa Rainaud of Torrington, CT, and (“Ted”) Henri Edward Rainaud IV and his wife Lily Zarrella of Boston, MA; his sister (“Muffett”) Marcia DeRevere Barth of Marathon, FL; and his niece Michelle (Barth) Ludwig and her husband John Ludwig of Marathon, FL. Henri will be remembered as a devoted and loving husband, father, brother, son and friend.

Services will be held at the convenience of the family. The Alderson-Ford Funeral Home of Cheshire has care of the arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, his family requests donations in his memory to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, which can be made at: https://development.miami.edu/page.aspx?pid=749.