h. c. fenn was the son of the reverend dr. courtenay hughes fenn, missionary to china and compiler of "the five thousand dictionary", and his wife alice holstein may fenn, and grew up in peking. he married constance latimer sargent on january 27, 1925. fenn was active in the "yale system" of chinese grammar developed by himself, george kennedy, gardner tewksbury, wang fangyu and others working in the institute of far eastern languages at yale in the late 1940s.