Jack Rohe Howard was born Aug. 31, 1910, in his parents' house on Upper Broadway in Manhattan, N.Y. He was named Jack, because that had been his father's nickname as a young man. The Rohe was his mother's maiden name. As the only son of Roy W. Howard ­ the "Howard" in Scripps Howard who built United Press into a worldwide wire service ­ he was destined to follow legendary footsteps. His respect for journalism was also nurtured by his mother, Margaret Rohe Howard, a writer of verse, a reporter and an actress on Broadway and the London stage, and his aunt, Alice Rohe, an internationally distinguished reporter.

Howard graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, where he was business manager of The Exonian, the school newspaper, and coxswain for the crew team. In 1932, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University, where he worked for the Yale Daily News. During his summer vacations from college, he worked at various jobs for United Press (UP) in London, New York and Paris, including coverage of the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

 

"His one obsession," Roy Howard said of his son, "is not to be Roy W. Howard." The burgeoning new field of radio gave JRH the opportunity to blaze his own trail. Scripps Howard bought its first radio station, WCPO in Cincinnati, in 1935, and the following year Howard began his broadcasting career at WNOX in Knoxville. He continued in radio in the Washington and New York offices of Continental Radio Company, later known as Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company, becoming president in 1937. Two years later, he assumed the additional responsibilities as assistant executive editor of Scripps Howard Newspapers.Roy Howard was determined to close a faltering Denver newspaper. Jack Howard intervened to reverse that decision and remade the newspaper as a tabloid in 1942. Today, the Rocky Mountain News is Greater Denver's most-read newspaper and one of the largest dailies in the country.

Howard served in the Navy during World War II, spending much of his time in Australia. Later, as a lieutenant and intelligence officer aboard the destroyer USS Fletcher for eight months, he saw action in and around the Philippines, including the landings at Leyte and Lingayen Gulf. He was part of a task force that was instrumental in the capture of an island in the Tokyo Bay area, for which he received a naval citation. Later, he was transferred to the USS Oakland for what would have been the invasion of the Japanese mainland. In 1945, after the surrender, he took part in the occupation of Yokosuka Naval Base. Howard retired from the navy as a lieutenant commander.

	This Howard family portrait appeared in Scripps Howard News in 1953. Jack and Barbara Howard's children each pursued careers in journalism ­ Pamela as a reporter for newspapers in New York and Washington, D.C., and Michael Howard as editor of the Rocky Mountain News. Today, Michael is a columnist for the Rocky. Barbara Howard died in 1962. Pamela is a Scripps Howard Foundation trustee. At his death, Jack Howard had seven grandchildren.
The extended Howard family celebrated Roy and Margaret Howard's 50th wedding anniversary in 1959. They are: from left ­ (front row) Jennifer Perkins; Roy and Margaret; Jack R. Howard and his only other sibling, Jane H. Perkins, who currently resides in New York; Barbara Balfe Howard; Albert C. Perkins; (back row) Timothy Perkins, Michael B. Howard, Pamela Howard and Anthony Perkins.

 

Howard received dozens of awards, citations and appointments during his long and distinguished career. From 1956-60, he served on the U.S. Post Office Advisory Board by appointment of President Eisenhower. He was a director of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and he was president of the Inter-American Press Association. In 1970, he received the Finnish government's highest foreign civilian award. In 1976, he received the America's Foundation Award. Howard held memberships in Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Delta Chi fraternities and the National Press Club. He was active in numerous charities, including the Wildlife Preservation Trust International and the Population Institute of Washington, D.C.; however, his primary interest was supporting scholarship students at his Phillips Exeter alma mater, for which he'd served as alumni president and received the distinguished alumnus award in 1990.

 

	In 1946, Howard was elected executive vice president of The E.W. Scripps Company, the holding company for the newspaper, broadcast and syndication subsidiaries and UP. In 1953, he succeeded his father as president of The E.W. Scripps Company, while retaining the presidency of Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company.
As he neared retirement age, at 65, he resigned as president of the two companies. He continued as chairman of the broadcasting company and as a director of The E.W. Scripps Company, working closely with his successor, Edward W. Estlow, center, and Charles E. Scripps, his long-time business associate.

 

Much of his time after his retirement from active management of The E.W. Scripps Company was spent involved in local politics of Centre Island, N.Y. For more than a decade, Howard served as town trustee. If he had an avocational passion, it would have been the outdoors in general and salmon fishing in particular. He was a founding member and partner of Le Club Watchichou on the north shore of Quebec, and had been an ardent Atlantic fly fisherman virtually all of his adult life. Howard's other great interest was the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. He attended the club's summer encampment every year from 1946 to 1992, until illness forced him to become an inactive member. Over the years, his campmates at Cave Man Camp included Lowell Thomas, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, Richard M. Nixon his father, Roy, and his son, Michael.

 

Walter Cronkite and Rupert Murdoch were among the 90 guests Jack and Eleanor Howard greeted in 1996 at a celebration in their home. After several years of ill health, the party was Howard's way of telling friends that he was feeling better. Howard had married Eleanor Sallee Harris, a free-lance magazine writer, in 1964. She died in October 1997.

 

Jack R. Howard stepped beyond his famous father's shadow to create one of the most impressive legacies in The E.W. Scripps Company's 120-year history. His career spanned 60 years, beginning as a newspaper reporter and rising to top leadership posts in publishing and broadcasting. Tulsa television station KJRH bears his initials, but all Scripps newspapers and broadcast stations bear his mark. Through it all, he maintained a loyalty and fondness for Scripps and members of the Scripps family. Says his son Michael, "In the very best sense, he was a company man to the very end."