HC-SR04 Echo Pin Fails To Go Low After Trigger Pulse
After many hours of research, I discovered that the problem is related to the fact that there is (apparently) a well-known bug in the HC-SR04 which is a Chinese clone of a Devantech SRF04.  I replaced the HC-SR04 with an SRF04 and the problem was solved.  Now, the ECHO pin always goes low after a trigger and after a time-out (i.e. the object is beyond the maximum measurement distance).