Henne arrived in Yellowknife, NWT from British Columbia as a labour union negotiator in early 1947, and successfully negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement at the Con Mine and Giant Mine in Yellowknife.
Soon thereafter, he decided to go into private business and purchased a controlling interest in the Frame & Perkins garage and automobile dealership in Yellowknife, which he operated from 1949 to 1980.
In the November 1955 election, he ran a successful campaign as mayoral candidate against a single opponent.
During his terms of office in the 1960s and 1970s, mayor Fred Henne guided Yellowknife as it grew from a mining town to capital of the Northwest Territories.
Fred Henne left Yellowknife in 1980, and died in 1998 in Summerland, BC.