John Richard Howard, Jr.

John was born to John Richard Howard, Sr. and Lucille Jarvis Howard on February 12, 1946 in Whittier, CA. The second of seven children, he was raised in a loving home with his two brothers and four sisters in Downey, CA.

He graduated from Downey High School in 1963, where he played on the CIF championship water polo team. He loved swimming and worked as an ocean lifeguard during the summers at Huntington Beach. He attended Orange State College for one year because of the water polo opportunities but transferred to Pomona College, Claremont, as a sophomore. There he met his wife-to-be, Leslie Taylor, at the freshman and transfer student orientation "howdy dance." They dated throughout college and married in 1969, as soon as they had enough money to buy wedding rings.

At Pomona College, John excelled as a top scorer on the water polo team. He was a natural athlete and enjoyed baseball and could run like the wind. He was strongly influenced by his philosophy professor, Fred Sontag, and was noted as an original philosophical thinker.

He joined the Sigma Tau fraternity, but had an equal number of close friends among the "rival" Kappa Deltas and other groups. He was a sponsor for new male students and made many lifetime friends.

On graduation in 1967, he shifted his focus from sports to academics. He earned a masters degree in physiology from the University of Southern California in 1970 and was accepted into medical school there that year. In 1974, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree and was elected into Alpha Omega Alpha, the national honor society for medical students.

After graduation in 1974, he did his internship in Internal Medicine and residency and fellowships in Hematology and Oncology at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland, taking two years during that time for Public Health Service at the Clinica Sierra Vista in Lamont, near Bakersfield, CA.

During the period of his medical training, John and Leslie were blessed by the births of their three daughters, Leah Katherine in Los Angeles in 1973, Rebekah Elise in Portland in 1975, and Mariah Rose in Bakersfield in 1977.

On the completion of his medical training in 1983, John and Leslie chose Chico as the community in which they would raise their three daughters and he would practice medicine. He joined the hematology and oncology practice of Donald Stoner and David Potter and felt lucky beyond words to have medical partners who shaped and shared his vision of how medicine should be practiced. He also served as Medical Director of Blood Source and worked with AIDS patients.

John was born to be a doctor. He was proud to follow in the footsteps of his father, a general practitioner in Downey, and to be joined in the medical profession by his two brothers, Randy a family practice physician and Brent an orthopedist; sister, Marsha, an optician; daughter, Mariah, an emergency room nurse; and nephew, Ben, in training as a trauma surgeon. He truly loved doing everything he could to help his patients and related to them on a personal level, sharing in their triumphs and losses. He considered patient care a team effort and was very appreciative of the efforts of all the doctors, nurses, administration, and other staff at Enloe Hospital and his office.

In his private time he rode his bicycle up Humboldt Road, played his wooden Irish flute, backpacked with his brothers and nephews in the high Sierras, cleared trails in Utah with his friends, Ed Daniels and Jeff Brown, and swam in any natural body of water that he could find. He often wore his swim trunks under his street clothes, just in case an opportunity presented itself.

He enjoyed helping to fix dinners at the Torres Community Shelter with the Chico Friends Meeting and sharing music with his friends at the Rise Up Singing Circle. Leslie and he enjoyed traveling to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, Orkney, Shetland, Alaska, Egypt, and to Lithuania, where he was able to meet family members from his mother's side.

He is survived by Leslie, his wife of 42 years; daughters, Leah Langheim, Becky (Isaac) Golino, and Mariah Hammons; granddaughters, Summer Zuber (15), Erin Langheim (13), Maia Langheim (10), Julia Langheim (8), Sofia Golino (6), Bridget Golino (4) and Emily Hammons (1); mother, Lucille (Bill) Souza; brothers, Randy and Brent Howard; sisters, Susan (Louie) Decker, Nancy (Jeff) Ott, Marsha Howard, and Patrice (Tom) Real; aunt, Bert (Fred) Matthews; nephews, Ben Howard, Matt, and Scott Howard and Christopher and Michael Ott; nieces, Suzanne Decker, Julie Howard, Katie Ott, and Victoria Real and loving members of his wife's family.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Harlen Adams Theater, Performing Arts Center, CSU Chico. All family, friends, co-workers and former patients are welcome to join in this celebration of his life.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Enloe Foundation Fund for Nursing Education or the Torres Community Shelter, in care of the Brusie Funeral Home, 626 Broadway, Chico, CA 95926. Published in Chico Enterprise-Record from May 6 to May 11, 2011