Robert Staples Howard, 97

Robert “Bob” Howard, Howard Publications newspaper founder, died Feb. 11, 2022, at home in Palm Desert, California, after a long battle with Parkinson's. Bob had an illustrious career buying, selling and publishing daily and weekly newspapers including the Daily Inter Lake. He amassed 18 dailies under the Howard Publications banner with some 2,000 employees and nearly a half million circulation.

The son of (Capt.) Earl Eaton Howard and Helen (Staples) Howard, the publishers of a small weekly in Wheaton, Minnesota, Bob was born Oct. 23, 1924, the third of three children. The family had an Army heritage with Earl serving in World War I and Bob and his brother Col. Thomas Howard in World War II. Thomas was a staff officer for General Patton through Africa, Italy and Germany. Bob left the University of Minnesota becoming a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, flying bombers as a navigator and nose gunner in the South Pacific. He earned a Purple Heart after being shot down in the Battle of Leyte.

After the war Bob returned to University where he met and married Lillian Irene Crabtree. They moved home soon after to relieve his widowed mother of publishing the Wheaton Gazette. Thus began his long career of buying and selling papers, making eight moves in different states across the U.S. His management acumen was noticed by the owners of the Scripps League of Seattle who hired Bob to manage their group of dailies. He later sold Scripps his papers in Kalispell, Montana, and Pocatello, Idaho, going back out on his own by purchasing a paper in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he founded Howard Publications, collecting dailies, cable companies and television stations.

During their many moves Lil and Bob had four children, Thomas, Andrea, William and David. Tom and Bill published newspapers in Wyoming and Idaho in their early years. Later Tom and David founded Howard Energy, diversifying the family holdings into oil and gas exploration and further into pharmaceuticals. Bill and Andrea's husband, Jack Palmer, remained running the newspapers until they were sold to Lee Enterprises in 2002 ending the families three generations of publishing but beginning an era of philanthropy. Much of his fortune was returned, mostly anonymously, through his foundation to the various communities where he lived and published. The list of his gifts is extensive; nothing grandiose or flashy but targeted and needs fulfilling at the community level, all given quietly and modestly.

Both Lillian and Tom died in Montana, Lillian of a brain hemorrhage in 2008 at 86 and Tom of esophageal cancer in 2019. Bob spent his final 12 years with a new love, Peggy Jacobs, in Palm Springs, California, and his Lakeside, Montana, summer home.

He is survived by Peggy Jacobs, his three remaining children and spouses, 17 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren.