In memory of Thomas Howard (QG 1972)
Thomas Howard, who attended Highgate School from 1972, has sadly died.
Thomas Andrew Howard was born on October 8, 1958 in Richmond, Virginia to Rufus and Martha Howard, the fourth of seven children. The husband, father, sibling and friend, well-respected economist and lifelong adventurer, died in March 2022 at the age of 63 while mountaineering in the Adirondacks in the US state of New York.
A doctor of economics, Tom worked as a computer programmer for the Pentagon, a macroeconomist for Fuji Bank, and as a consultant for Arthur D. Little and PIRA Energy over his 40-year career. As a young man, he was an avid track and cross country runner, which he practised at Highgate School, at one point setting the 10K record in Britain for his age group.
Tom was an accomplished mountaineer and hiker. He spent over 40 years climbing some of the most challenging mountains on the globe: ascending Mt. McKinley, Mt. Huascaran in Peru, and Xixabangma Peak in the Himalayas, to name but a few. He hiked the 273-mile Long Trail in Vermont and the entirety of the 2,000-mile long Appalachian Trail, from Maine to Georgia. In October 2021, he crossed the entire White Mountain Presidential Range in one day. Tom aspired to climb the second-highest mountain on each of the seven continents and had finished the first part of this journey when he scaled Mt. Kenya in the fall of 2021.
Tom is survived by his wife, Zhu Zhang Howard (Julie), and daughters Gwendolyn and Madison Howard. He met Julie while working in New York; they were married in 1993, and moved to Westport, CT in 1997.
The funeral service was held in Connecticut on 26 March 2022 at St. Luke Catholic Church in Westport.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in the name of Tom Howard to Search and Rescue of the Northern Adirondacks (SARNAK), benefitting search and rescue efforts in the Northern Adirondacks, or to Saint Luke Catholic Church.
SARNAK's Paypal can be found at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1358274 and St. Luke's Paypal can be found at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/SaintLukeRCChurch?locale.x=en_US.
To send an online condolence, please visit www.shaughnesseybanks.com.