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The Greatest Honor: Robert Howe, M.D. '58
Robert Howe '58(LFHS Alumni, Class of
’54) is pictured with Director of Alumni Relations Nick Famulare '92 (LFHS
Alumni, Class of ’88), left, and Interim President Jim Underwood during
Homecoming 2005
Robert Howe, Union’s 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award
winner, had the grades, the smarts and the desire – but not the means –
to go to Union. Then Jonathan Pearson III ’42, the College’s director of
admissions, “came traveling up the valley,” to talk to promising high
school students in Little Falls, N.Y.
Howe was direct: “I said, ‘You can talk, but I can’t
afford it.”
Fortunately, he garnered enough in scholarships and
grants from the College and other groups to make Union possible.
Grateful for that support, Howe has been giving generously to Union
since his freshman year – never missing a year.
More recently, he made the College both owner and
beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy to endow a chair in
developmental biology in honor of one of his mentors, Professor Raymond
Rappaport.
Now a professor himself, teaching medicine at the
University of Minnesota, Howe was a dual biology and chemistry major who
thrived on the close-knit relationships he formed in Union’s science
department.
He was inspired by the faculty, particularly Rappaport
and Francis Lambert in biology and Egbert Bacon and the late Howard
Sheffer in chemistry. It was Rappaport who encouraged him to attend the
Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine, where
Howe worked for several summers with cutting-edge biologists such as
Fred Berglund from the renowned Karolinska Institute in Sweden, one of
Europe’s largest medical universities.
At Union, Howe’s passion for science, medicine and
research grew so strong he applied to medical school after only three
years.
“Fortunately, I didn’t get in,” he said. “I came back
to Union, and it was the best year of my intellectual life. I had only
one required course, so I took music, art, history of modern warfare
with Professor Bill Dody – just stuff. I read a novel a week. Senior
year was an enriching, maturing experience. Without it, I probably would
have been a nerd. Maybe I still am, but I would have been a narrower
nerd.”
Howe graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1962 and
worked for the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and the U.S.
Public Health Service before joining the Minnesota faculty in 1970. In
addition to teaching, he is a hematologist who currently is studying
etiology and treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
The former Mohawk Valley student returns to the Union
campus regularly.
“I try to go to Homecoming every year,” he said. Next
to receiving his alumni award at last year’s Homecoming, “the only
greater honor was receiving my degree from Union.”
A volunteer’s world: Here’s Howe he does it
Robert Howe ’58 loves giving his time and energy to
Union.
He is chairman of the Ramée Circle Society, president
of the Minneapolis Alumni Club, a member of the Alumni Physicians
Advisory Board and an Annual Fund volunteer.
He also is a former Terrace Council Chair and class
representative to the Alumni Council, and, eager to spread the Union
word, he has helped Admissions in recruiting students from his home
state.
At ReUnion ’98, his 40th class year, Howe and his
wife, Sondra, a musician and piano educator, captivated audiences with
their lecture-demonstration, “Music, Medicine and Mozart.” The program
was so successful the Howes reprised it at other alumni gatherings.
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