Richard Douglas Howard
June 23, 1944 - May 19, 2018

Richard Douglas Howard passed away May 19, 2018 at Napa Valley hospital after a heart attack at home in Lower Lake, Calif.

He was surrounded by friends and family including his loving wife of over 30 years, Marie Howard.

Richard was born June 23, 1944 to our mother Claudia Louise Batten in Troy, NC.

Adopted by our father Donald Rex Howard at a very early age, he and mom left North Carolina as a military family and moved half a world away to Japan. He adapted quickly which began his love of travel and exotic places, the family moving back to the USA in 1956 with his newly adopted brother, Chuck.

Together they all moved to Northern California which to this day is where their heart remains and where they returned to even after residing so many places all over the U.S. and the world.

In 1972 sister Gina was adopted and brought into our loving family, herself moving from halfway around the world and being instilled with the travel bug as well.

Richard started his adult life quickly after high school, getting married, entering the Army and starting a family.

He was stationed at Fort Polk, LA, also serving temporary duty in Vietnam at the beginning of the war. He was in motor pool which fit his love of cars that extended during his entire lifetime and served as driver for the base commander.

After his honorable discharge, he and the family moved back to the beloved Bay Area where he found employment in auto body work. This trade became a core skill in his hobby of classic car restoration and chopper rebuilding and he became a sought-after expert on both with some of his work being displayed at the Oakland Roadster Show and in national magazines in the 1970s.

Richard’s sense of entrepreneurship led him on many paths at different stages in his life: his own auto body shop in Berkeley; co-owner of a commercial fishing vessel; caretaker of a luxury mansion in Sausalito; dry dock rigging in Hawaii; and co-founding a small engineering company that developed a cable cleaning tool still in use on the Golden Gate Bridge today.

During these ventures he discovered his love of two important things in his life. The first and foremost was meeting his wife Marie who became his life partner at his side on many of these journeys.

The other was his love of the sea as he became enamored with boats as much as he did with cars. Perhaps his and Marie’s greatest adventure was delivering a 75-foot double-masted schooner from Sausalito to its new owner in Singapore, a trip that lasted several weeks across the open sea. It was the ultimate test of his seamanship and he loved it.

Richard is survived by wife, Marie; daughters, Debbie, Diane and Ellie; sons, Tommy and Brian; grandchildren, Shannon, Chris, Vanessa, Naudia and Dylan; and the light of his life, great-granddaughter, Katelynn.

We were fortunate that we were able to enjoy his daughter’s wedding last September in Idaho and a nice local family vacation two weeks before his passing near his home in Lower Lake that leaves us with positive thoughts of a man who loved life, cars, the sea and most of all his family. We will miss him greatly until we all meet again.

Condolences can be sent to Marie Howard, P.O. Box 1763, Lower Lake, CA 95457.

“End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings”




A memorial service will be held Saturday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, 1351 Maple Ave., in the North Room. A celebration of life with food and refreshments will follow until 4 p.m. The Vet Building shares the parking lot with the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and with other events at the building. There may be an attendant, parking is free if you tell them you’re attending an event at the Vet Center. Do not pay for parking. Parking is best for this at the northwest corner of the building, signs will be evident to direct you inside.

Flowers not necessary, just come and share your treasured memories of Richard.