Obituary of Larimore "Larry" Bruce Howard, Ph.D.

On January 3, 2020, Larry B. Howard, Ph.D., 91, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, passed away peacefully while in home hospice care with his wife, Elaine, of sixty-seven years at his side. He is survived by his wife; his four children, Randy (Jane Ernst) of Denver, Colorado, Rick (Laura Pimentel) of Baltimore, Maryland, Laure (Bill) Kenyon of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Lisa (Jim) Longanecker of Atlanta, Georgia; and six grandchildren, Brianna, Wes, Maddie, Chloe, Tanner and Sierra.Larry was born in Seattle in 1928, weighing thirteen pounds, resulting in his being labelled as "The Great White Hope" by a local newspaper. His father, Walter, was a civil engineer and his mother, Anita, a three sport letterwoman at the University of Washington. The Howards subsequently moved to western Montana, living in several cities: Helena, Missoula, Polson/Flathead Lake and Rimini.Larry was an adventurous kid, prone to taking overnight trips to the mountains with his loyal dog, Gus, and sometimes hopping trains to get from place to place. He attended the Menlo Prep School near Palo Alto, California, where he was a scholar-athlete, finishing in three years and lettering in football, track and field, and swimming. In 1945, Larry enlisted at age 17 to join the WWII effort. He was sent to University of Utah for engineering and parachute training and joined the 11th Airborne Division, which was headed for the Pacific. Thanks to President Truman, the war ended before he was deployed, so he ended up in the occupation forces on Hokkaido as a medic.After completing military service, he returned to the United States and obtained a BA in Chemistry and Microbiology at the University of Montana in 1949, where he met his wife, Elaine Ungherini, of Butte, Montana, a Speech Pathology major. During his summer vacations, Larry put his army airborne training to work as a smokejumper. Larry and Elaine subsequently moved to Minneapolis, where Larry obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. They were married in 1952 and had their first child, Randy, in 1955. Upon graduation in 1956, Larry accepted a position as the Assistant Director of the Georgia State Crime Lab in Atlanta, where he and Elaine ultimately had their other three children, Rick (1956), Laure (1958) and Lisa (1961).After arriving in Atlanta, Larry added post-doctoral education in multiple medical sciences at Emory University, where he eventually joined the staff in the Medical School Anatomy and Pathology Departments. He received advanced forensic training at the Crime Lab under the tutelage of the then current Director, Dr. Herman Jones. Larry then spent much of his time driving and flying his airplanes all over the state to perform autopsies and investigate crime scenes. In 1969, he became the Director of the Georgia Division of Forensic Sciences and Supervisor of the Georgia Medical Examiner System, a position he held until his Georgia retirement in 1988.While he had many interesting stories, Larry was perhaps best known for his roles in the Atlanta child murder cases in the 1980's and a series of arsenic poisonings in South Georgia. The child murder cases drew national media and FBI attention. He and his Crime Lab forensic team used blood, rug fibers and dog hairs associated with both the suspect and victims to help convict Wayne Williams, who is still in prison. This was before DNA evidence became generally available and the first time that rug fibers and dog hair had been used with traditional physical evidence to help convict a suspect.During his years with the Crime Lab, Larry also served as the Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and President of the American Society of Crime Lab Directors. He was on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Forensic Science and the American Journal of Legal Medicine and Pathology. He was also a member of multiple scientific societies and consulted and lectured on various forensic topics, including drug and poison deaths, ballistics and blood spatter patterns.Larry's numerous honors include Who's Who in America (2007-2012) and Who's Who in the World (2008). In 1973, he was given the American Bicentennial Research Institute Award in Recognition of Professional and Civil Attainment. In 1981, he was voted Man of the Year by the District Attorneys' Association of Georgia and in 2000, received the Briggs White Award for excellence in forensic science management.After retiring from the Georgia Lab, Larry and Elaine moved back to Montana, where he worked for two years as a forensic scientist in the Montana Division of Forensic Science in Missoula (1988-90). They then moved to Colorado Springs to help the Colorado Springs Police Department develop, build and manage their crime lab (1990-95). From 1995 to 2017 he worked as a forensic science consultant.Larry had multiple additional interests. He played competitive volleyball at the YMCA for years and as a fitness enthusiast, was known around the neighborhood to some as "Clark Kent". In his 40's, he climbed Grand Teton as part of a technical mountaineering course. He was also a member of the Georgia Canoe Association and an amateur geologist, having picked up a BS in Geology at Georgia State University in 1983, to aid in the characterization of soil-related physical evidence. As a lifelong pilot who owned three different airplanes, Larry made national news when the engine of his Mooney died while he was flying to a case in South Georgia and he was forced to make an emergency landing on I-75. Remembrance Gathering, 3:00PM-6:00PM, Saturday, February 22, 2020, Cheyenne Mountain Resort and Conference Center-Remington Room, 3225 Broadmoor Valley Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906. Larry's life will be celebrated in gatherings in both Colorado Springs and the Tetons, with his ashes to be spread in both Wyoming and Montana. Events Remembrance Gathering Saturday, February 22, 2020 3:00PM - 6:00PM Cheyenne Mountain Resort 3225 Broadmoor Valley Road Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Phone: (719) 538-4000