A Fellow Collector has Passed Away

[Mike P.]

William L Howard passed away yesterday… He was a true Historian. Many in our field of Collecting didn’t know him …He loved Ordnance and Radio gear/Electronics .. he was not directly or heavily involved in Medal and Uniform Collecting the way some of us are ..he was none the less one of the older “Gentlemen” of this Hobby and highly respected in his field ..Military Intel.

I met Bill years ago …visited his Home several times in Clearwater Florida, that first time was such a memorable visit ! He lived by himself in a large, one story Ranch and had converted each of the rooms into a different Era of Military History. One room was ALL WW1 , another all WW2 ..his House WAS his Collection.
Bill told me that he decided years ago that when his time came , he made special plans for his Collection. He had signed the papers donating everything to the US Army Intelligence Museum . He showed me a picture of the Officer they had assigned to him ..very pretty young lady and , I KNOW he enjoyed that. He said she stayed in touch always checking to see if he needed anything . I know they didn’t assign her just because of the Collection ..Bill was a living resource and still very active in that “community” even though he had retired years ago.

These older Collectors are leaving us now…almost hand in hand with the WW2 Veterans whose relics they gathered. In a way ..many of them set a Standard by defining what a Military Collector is or should be . Bill loved a mystery ..he loved cracking open a dusty old ref Book or TM digging / searching, trying his best to find the answers another Collector had been searching for. He also had a wonderful sense of humor that would sometimes come out when you least expected it.
He was the type of person you were proud to know ..and one whose friendship you valued ..I will miss him but , our Hobby will miss him more.
He had no Family ...The Hobby and fellow Collectors were his Family.

All of his Life it was his greatest Love ..and now he’s finally become a part of it ..History

If you have time …check out his Website because it might not be around for long. If you see a few pages that might be of future use , you should copy them now before they are gone. .Here’s the main site -. http://www.wlhoward.com/id3.htm Here’s the link showing his Collection -- http://wlhoward.com/museum/
You’ll see that even though he used his whole House …he still did not have enough room to properly display everything
It would be a shame if they erased everything because he has an incredible amount of information listed.

[waffenamt]

Hi Mike,
Im very sorry to hear of Williams passing.

What a cracking site he ran!,i hope somebody takes time out to keep it going.

regards


waff

[Mike P.]

Thanks Waff ..I just had an Email re that and , it looks like they are going to try to keep it going. Also ..the Bulk Email I recieved letting me know about his passing has started to turn into a running "Testimonial" to the Man ...glad to see that.