Howey, John Richard, 2009 February 03

This is a Living History interview with John Howey, class of 1957, conducted by Marilyn Somers on February 3, 2009, at his office in Tampa, Florida. The subject of the interview is the interviewee’s life and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Howey was born in Connecticut in 1932. He was an only child and his parents were originally from Ohio. At three, Mr. Howey and his family moved to Atlanta so his father could take a position as the head of the Physics Department at Georgia Tech. All of Mr. Howey’s uncles and aunts stayed in the North. His father and mother bought a house on Tech’s campus and Mr. Howey was able to make friends with several of the children of the other professors. He attended Spring Street Elementary School and met his best friend, Pacen Kennedy, there. In seventh grade, Mr. Howey’s father moved the family to Boston for a year while he conducted research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Though he enjoyed Boston, Mr. Howey was happy to return to Atlanta. The Georgia The atmosphere at that time was very inviting. Mr. Howey’s family even had a young math professor living in an apartment over their garage for a few years. As a Boy Scout, he was also able to work the gates for the home football games. Mr. Howey attended Henry Grady high school with several other teacher’s children from Tech. He was very involved and played a lot of basketball in high school. During his summers, he attended a life saving course taught by the infamous Coach Freddy Lanoue in the old Heisman Gym of Tech’s campus. As he was getting ready to leave for college, Mr. Howey learned the nickname several of the students had for his father, “Howey Hardpants.” Though he was not sure he wanted to attend college at first, Mr. Howey’s parents eventually convinced him to attend Worcester State College. Thought he enjoyed the college, he could not get used to the cold weather at all and transferred back into Georgia Tech after his second year at Worcester. He started as an Industrial Engineer, then switched into Architecture. This switch drew out his attendance at Tech to almost seven years. He felt that he floundered around for his entire first year at Tech until he found his niche. Even though his parents lived very close, Mr. Howey opted to live in the dorms instead of at home. As a student he learned that although his father was tough, all the students loved him. Mr. Howey did join a fraternity, but he spent the majority of his nights in the architecture studio rather than social events. The time he did have off was reserved for Georgia Tech sporting events. He thinks he may have attended every football and basketball that was offered while he attended. This was during the years of Coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech. After graduation, Mr. Howey joined the Corp of Transportation, went through basic training, then moved out to California. On the west coast, Mr. Howey did not attend regular meetings of the Reserves. Because he missed meeting, he was called back into active service and shipped to New Orleans. Mr. Howey enjoyed New Orleans and the rowdy group of friends he made there. After his service in New Orleans, he went to St. Petersburg, Florida to work as a practicing architect. He worked for several smaller firms until he opened his own in 1965. In 1968, Mr. Howey got married to a woman who already had two children. As the father took one, he only felt he ever raised one of her children. Shortly after the marriage, his parents moved down to Tampa to be near him. Mr. Howey traveled a great deal for his firm, and received a great deal of positive publicity that helped to create a good reputation for the business. He gets a great deal of satisfaction out of seeing his projects get the use and activity they were designed for. Throughout his career, Mr. Howey has always admired architects who were able to use their environment as inspiration and has tried to do many of his projects in that way. While Mr. Howey was designing building, his father was creating as well. Dr. Howey was an inventor and built several inventions including a new fan belt for cars and a medical metal extractor. Mr. Howey now has children and grandchildren of his own. His son, John, two children and his daughter, Dorothy, has two as well. His mother lived long enough to meet both John and Dorothy and gave Mr. Howey a helping hand during the hard times in his business. Mr. Howey feels fortunate to have been able to attend Georgia Tech at the time of so many legends.