David Lloyd George (‘Red’) Howard BA, MD, FRCPC

Born on January 18, 1922 in a snowstorm at 40 degrees below zero on the family farm near Harris, Saskatchewan, the youngest child of homesteaders, William and Margret Howard, was delivered by a rural Doctor who arrived by horse and sleigh. He loved his rural upbringing with brothers Wilfred (‘Pet’) and Stan and his sister Neta Engers. Medicine became his calling when he witnessed the rural doctor save Pet’s life, after he ruptured his appendix in 1933.

Red left the farm to attend medical school at The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, finishing his degree at the University of Toronto in 1948. He never forgot his farming roots, often leaving his studies or his medical practice to help his brothers with seeding or harvesting. Later on, he would send one of his sons to help their uncles on the family farm. He moved back to the Prairies in 1948 to Intern at the Calgary General Hospital, and then achieved his first dream to become a rural Doctor in Carmangay, Alberta in 1949. He enjoyed practicing alongside his classmate, Dr. Gord Hammersley, but became restless in 1952 and headed east to further his studies. His second dream was to become a specialist. He was awarded a Post-Doctoral Fellowship position with Dr. Hans Selye at McGill, studying the adrenal glands and stress responses and links to arthritis. His work in McGill led to an Arthritis Society of Canada (‘CARS’) Fellowship to train in Rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with Dr. Philip Hench. It speaks to his hard work and tenaciousness that he relocated himself, his wife and four children to take up a coveted post as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Dr. Hench, who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1950 for the discovery of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is still used today by all Rheumatologists, worldwide.

Red returned to Calgary in 1954 as one of Western Canada’s first Rheumatologists. To prepare for the examinations to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC), he had to leave his family to obtain further clinical training in Saskatoon. He was the first Resident, admitting the first patient to the newly opened University Hospital in Saskatoon. When he returned to Calgary in 1955, he passed his FRCPC examinations and founded the Rheumatic Disease Unit at the Calgary General Hospital. He had achieved his dream to become a specialist in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. Red held the position of Chief of Staff of the Calgary General Hospital several times, while supporting Helen in parenting seven children. In 2004, fifty years after opening his practice in Calgary, he was honoured by the University of Calgary with an ‘Arthritis Society Hero Award’. He was also recognized as one of the Physician Founders of the medical school, now the Cumming School of Medicine in Calgary, which his daughter Catharine (MD, 1985) proudly attended.

Red was renowned for his wit and wicked sense of humour, his devotion to his family and his patients, and his never ending admiration and love for his wife of 50 years, Helen. In 1983, Red and Helen retired to Victoria, BC where he continued to practice medicine part-time for another decade. Red and Helen loved being surrounded by their children and grandchildren on the Island. He was a respected colleague, an outstanding diagnostician, a mentor and friend to many Doctors and Nurses throughout his long career. His legacy continues in those who have chosen to follow in his footsteps.

In his retirement, Red loved golf, travel, gardening, dining out (Fonbo’s in particular), reading, feeding the ducks near their home, listening to music from the 40’s and 50’s and playing along on his harmonica, watching baseball and enjoying the hummingbirds that came to his feeder.

He survived his beloved wife, Helen by 16 years; now they are together for eternity. He will be greatly missed by his seven children (and partners), David (Laura), Catharine Dewar (Doug), Charlotte, Bill (Jennifer), Bob (Heather), Gord and Margaret (Bruce); and his five grandchildren, James (Lisa), Allison, Kory, Lindsay and Katelyn; plus numerous nieces and nephews in Canada and abroad.

The family extends great thanks and appreciation to ‘Doc Howard’s girls’ from MaryCare and Saint Elizabeth Health Care, and to Dr. Ted Rosenberg and his team who helped Dad contentedly remain in his home in Victoria. Red passed away in Victoria General Hospital on August 19, 2015, at the age of 93. His ending was very peaceful, with family at his bedside.

At his request, there will be no public funeral. His ashes will be laid to rest with Helen’s, in Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich.

For those who wish, donations in his name can be made to the Harris Museum, Box 131 Harris, SK., Canada S0L 1K0, which he dearly loved.

“In His will is our peace; it is the sea into which all currents and all streams empty themselves, for all eternity.”

Condolences may be offered to the family below.

Sequoia Gardens Memorial
www.sequoiagardens.com