Read the full Washington Post obituary on Leon Howell.

Washington, DC — February 25, 2009 — F. Leon Howell was a member of the International Relief and Development, Inc. Board of Directors since its inception in 1998. He passed away peacefully in his sleep on February 25. Howell was born in Copperhill, TN, and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College in North Carolina. He received his M. Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Howell, an Army lieutenant, received an award of merit for his work as Acting Information Officer for the 1st Cavalry Division in peacetime Korea in 1960-61. He taught high school Latin and speech, worked in higher education for the National Council of Churches in New York City, was CEO of a Hong Kong publishing firm for 20 years, and commuted between New York City and Washington, DC for 10 years to be the editor and publisher of “Christianity and Crisis” magazine. For four years, Howell wrote a weekly “Letter from America” for the Asia-Pacific office of Voice of America. He lived and operated primarily out of Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Saigon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, New York, and Washington.

Howell was the author or editor of eight books reaching from the civil rights movement in Mississippi (“Freedom City: The Substance of Things Hoped For”) to the energy crisis seen from Singapore (“Asia, Oil, Politics and the Energy Crisis: The Haves and Have-Nots”). He is survived by his wife, the former Barbara Smith, his co-author for “Southeast Asians Speak Out: Between Hope and Despair,” as well as two daughters and three grandsons.

Tribute to Leon Howell
By Arthur B. Keys, Jr.

A Memorial Service for Leon Howell will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, 2009, at the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, One Chevy Chase Circle NW, Washington, DC 20015. Leon was born in Copperhill, Tennessee on April 8, 1935. He will be cremated and his ashes placed in the Columbarium of the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church.

Leon served on the IRD Board of Directors since the First Annual Meeting of the Board on June 22, 1999 and served as Secretary since 1999, was a member of the Executive Committee and Audit Committee. He led a major reorganization of the Board of Directors, including installing term limits. He thoroughly enjoyed his engagement with IRD.

Leon was a staunch supporter of IRD's growth and development and supported our management and staff as we moved into difficult areas. And he was always an advocate of programs that serve the most vulnerable groups in any society. He was a stickler for proper grammar and often provided his edits and critique of IRD publications. He fussed with the proposed IRD Mission Statement that said IRD provides tools and/or resources needed to increase self-sufficiency. He demanded it be clarified to provide tools and resources, and avoid "and/or".

He was an international journalist and publisher and lived for many years in Asia. Leon was the former Editor of Christianity and Crisis Magazine, founded by his academic mentor Reinhold Niebuhr. He always took a special interest in IRD projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Mississippi. IRD staff were always impressed when he could say, "I've been there." Due to his illness, he was only able to make one Board field visit to an IRD project in Gulfport, Mississippi.

He loved to tell stories of his coverage of important historical events, like the Bandung, Indonesia Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in 1956 and the Bangladesh Liberation and Indo-Pakistani Wars in 1970, especially to our younger staff. At the same time he lived and worked for building a better tomorrow. He wrote regular columns to his voluminous lists of "subscribers." They usually contained his insights and reports of current political and religious events, his latest film reviews, and enhanced commentary on many sports. His east Tennessee childhood political idol was Estes Kefauver whose Southern populism seemed to have been a major influence on Leon's later political philosophy and outlook.

Leon was a prolific author. He wrote “Ethics in the Present Tense, Readings from Christianity and Crisis” 1966-1991; “Funding the War of Ideas:  A report to the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries”, 1995; “People Are the Subject: A Story of Urban Rural Mission”, 1980; “Freedom City and the Substance of Things Hoped For”, 1969; “Asia, Oil, Politics, and the Energy Crisis (the Haves and the Have Nots)”, 1974; “United Methodism at Risk: A Wake Up Call”, 1982; “Acting in Faith, The World Council of Churches”, 1975-1982; and “Containment and Change”, introduction, 1967.

Leon graduated from Davidson College and the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was an avid layman and wrote many reports for various religious agencies. He was very active in the National Christian Student Movement and the Urban-Rural Mission Program of the World Council of Churches. He traveled widely and wrote extensively. He was an expert on the various critics of the social activism of the mainline Protestant Church's mission programs and wrote several articles and books on these themes. He believed in the Social Gospel and worked to further its goals as he saw them. He recently hosted a major fundraiser for the World Council of Churches attended by the General Secretary Sam Kobia, his close personal friend.

I worked with Leon during the political organizing that led to the adoption of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Bill of 1978. We traveled together to the World Council of Churches Urban-Rural Mission Conference in Melbourne, Australia in 1980. He made his home and car available to Jasna and me when we relocated from New York to Washington in 1985.

Leon was a very robust, strong, athletic man and played football in high school. His athletic career was modified when he was in a major auto accident in his senior year in high school. But he was one of the most rabid and informed sports fans alive. He participated with friends in an NFL football pool for the last thirty years. Fellow Board Member John Deckenback and I yearly attended a Redskins football game with Leon for the last fifteen seasons.

He was stricken by a never fully diagnosed viral spinal infection in 1995. His condition was described as Transverse Myalitis. He suffered with diabetes and had a heart attack fourteen years ago. He had difficulty walking at all in the last two years. IRD recently purchased two wheelchairs to accommodate Leon's participation in upcoming Board of Directors meetings, including one that was motorized.

He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Barbara; his two daughters, Leah and Marya; their husbands and three grandchildren. Barbara was his real-life partner. She retired as Director of Government Relations of Bread for the World (BFW) after opening the first one-person BFW advocacy office in Washington in 1975.  He took pride in the success of his daughters: Marya, Associate Director of Administration and Ongoing Services and the Center for Community service and Justice at Loyola College in Baltimore; and Leah, Director of the Individual Studies Program at the University of Maryland. And his grandchildren were his special pride and joy.

Leon was a giant of a man on the IRD Board of Directors and will be sorely missed by all of us.