John A. Howard, Center Namesake and Inspiration, Dies at Age 93
Born in 1921, John Howard served with great distinction in the First Infantry Division during World War II, earning two Silver Star medals and two Purple Hearts. On discharge, he committed his career to sustaining America's religious ideals and liberties, for which many of his friends had fought and died. During the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, Dr. Howard headed the first program to use government contracts to open jobs to qualified minority applicants. Later, President Richard M. Nixon appointed him as a member of The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse.
Dr. Howard served as President of Rockford College for seventeen years and as national President of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities for three years. In 1976, he launched The Rockford College Institute, becoming its full time director the following year. In 1979, Dr. Howard became President of the independent and renamed Rockford Institute, retiring from that post in 1986. Eleven years later, several Institute programs were reorganized as The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, named in his honor.
Over forty of Dr. Howard's lectures and talks were published in Vital Speeches. Read his full bio and many of his speeches at
http://profam.org/people/xthc_jah.htm. His books included
Christianity: Lifeblood of America's Free Society (1620-1945), Detoxifying the Culture, and
America's Best Colleges! Really?
John Howard is survived by his wife, Jan, four children, and nine grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Rockford, at a date still to be determined. Email the Howard Center at
johnhowardmemorial@profam.org for more information.
The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society (www.profam.org) is located in Rockford, Illinois and is an independent, non-profit research and education center that provides sound scholarship and effective strategies to affirm and encourage the natural family, thus renewing a sustainable and free society. The Howard Center is the publisher of the journal, "The Family In America: A Journal of Public Policy,"and has special NGO consultative status at the United Nations (UN). The Howard Center the organizer of the World Congress of Families (WCF) project which is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to affirm and restore the natural family as the fundamental and only sustainable unit of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was co-founded in 1995 by Dr. Allan Carlson. To date, there have been seven official World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (2007), Amsterdam (2009), Madrid (2012) and Sydney (2013). World Congress of Families IX will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from October 27-30, 2015 (www.wcf9.org). For more information on World Congress of Families visit www.worldcongress.org.
