In Memory of
Forest W. Howell
1924 - 2001

presented by
Maurice L. Williamson
February 27, 2001

Forest Howell was a kind and gentle man of impeccable character. He was humble and forgiving, yet classically trained in religion and philosophy. He was a serious student of mankind who carried a hidden demeanor that clothed himself in the armor or a quick and biting humor. I learned that from personal experience. As president of the Lafayette Rotary Club, I made it a weekly practice to make excuses for my poor Church attendance, and to call attention to his ugly ties. Believe me, I paid the price when he did the family news the following year.

Rev. Howell was a member of an exceptional Church family. His Father was a Methodist minister as six of his eight brothers who followed their Father's footsteps. His first wife, Louise Baker Howell from Shadeland passed away in 1982. His surviving wife is Eleanor Dehn Howell who lives at Wesley Manor in Frankfort.

His professional training was incomparable. He was a Rector Scholar at DePauw University, graduating in 1946. He graduated magna cum laude from the Boston University School of Theology. He was an Osnan-Liebman Fellow at the University of Chicago where he earned his Master's Degree.

He was ordained in 1949 as a minister in the United Methodist Church. He served charges at Montmorenci-Mt. Zion, Kewanna, Delphi, Indianapolis Wesley, South Bend Grace, Greencastle, Robb, and West Lafayette.

Forest was District Superintendent of the Lebanon District of the Northwest Indiana Conference, and was General Superintendent of the Northwest Indiana Methodist Homes with facilities at Wesley Manor in Frankfort, and Asbury Towers in Greencastle.

He was President of the North Indiana Conference Fellowship of Retired Ministers and Spouses, overseas coordinator for Operation Classrooms of the United Methodist Church in Liberia, Africa, and a member of the trauma counseling team in that country. He was also a director of a work camp in Brazil, South America. He served for ten years on the Methodist Conference Board of Education, four years as President. He was chairman of the camping committee that developed Pine Creek Camp.

Rev. Howell was a Trustee of Depauw University, President of Group Homes of Lafayette, and a Director of the Indiana Council of Churches.

Forest Howell is a man of God, but you couldn't tell it by the clothes that he wore. There were no robes or sashes, symbolic trappings or royal raiment to identify his as an emissary of the Heavenly Father. You knew all that by his gentility, his love for all mankind, his perfect willingness to do all good works, and his unmitigated determination to do the work of his Church that he loved so much.

I will mis my friend Forest Howell. Lafayette Rotary will miss him. All mankind will miss him.

But he's not far away.

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