Gerald "Jerry" Lawrence Howell

Jerry L. Howell, a man who cringed at the mere whisper of his middle name, has gracefully exited stage left, prompting us to honor his memory with a simple initial. He passed away unexpectedly, just under 10 months until Christmas, on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 in the town he’d called home for the past 41 years, San Antonio, while having a rather ordinary conversation with one of his sons at his bedside.

He was born at a young age on September 29, 1942 in a one-room shack in Memphis, Tennessee to mother, Lillian, and father, David Sr. joining his older brother David Jr. whom he admired greatly.

Jerry loved food and was addicted to cola. He loved dunking his sushi in wasabi-laden soy sauce, partaking in the veritable smorgasbord that is a $10.99 Asian buffet, slowly devouring a nice plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, dining on a good old-fashioned bologna sandwich, scarfing down pickled pig’s feet, Vienna sausages, sardines and other foods that make most people’s skin crawl. His favorite desserts included chocolate covered cordial cherries and moonpies. Although never a lush, he was known to partake in a chilled sweet wine such as a low-dollar Lambrusco or Moscato, and also developed a taste for Goslings Black Seal Rum during his time stationed in Bermuda in the 60’s.

Jerry lived a varied life filled with thousands of wild experiences, passions, and pursuits. He began his entrepreneurial journey at age 5, shining shoes to put dinner on the table. School brought him in off the streets, though he was held back in first grade for looking out the window from boredom before being springboarded forward several grades in school once they realized his boredom came from being subjected to a curriculum that wasn’t appropriately challenging his exceptional intelligence.

He received Special Forces training and paratrooped into Laos as a new member of the US Air Force during the US’s clandestine lead up to the Vietnam War. After escaping alive, he learned meditation and a rudimentary command over his sympathetic nervous system under the tutelage of a Buddhist monk in Bermuda in an attempt to control symptoms caused by the horrors of war. While stationed there, working as an air traffic controller, he and his fellow airmen witnessed a UAP (at the time referred to as a UFO) approaching their base that he described as traveling at incomprehensible speeds.

Out of the Air Force, he became an enthusiastic and dynamic preacher in the Church of Christ, tiptoeing down the path of his paternal lineage. He learned the King James Bible by heart, and studied many of the world’s religions in depth which shaped his life in many ways until his last breath, and perhaps beyond.

Through the middle portion of his life, Jerry’s wild journey continued. He spent time as an executive working for the Cotton Belt Railroad. He was a working musician, and one night, while he was playing piano with his band in a dive bar in Memphis, he was invited by the King himself to a party at Graceland. A great point of pride in Jerry’s younger years were his nimble feet, as he was a skilled ballroom dance instructor whose body moved so gracefully to the rhythm of the beat. This made the BKA of his left leg in the twilight of his life, that much greater a travesty.

Before leaving Memphis, Jerry married his first wife Pat. That didn't last long, and he eventually made his way to Chicago where he married his second wife, Ardis, and had his first born son.

He excelled at methodical and strategic games like one-pocket and chess. Although he didn’t finish high school, Jerry had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and completed many hours of course work at various universities in Chicago including University of Michigan, Loyola, and DePaul. He studied a wide variety of subjects from medicine to law, astronomy, and even marine biology which led him to recording and studying the songs of humpback whales off the shore of Lahaina in Maui in the 1970’s.

A true son of a gun, one of the wonderful blessings for Jerry is that he was never wrong. Of course, it wasn’t always that wonderful of a blessing for his inevitable debate partners - think: friends, acquaintances, wives, sons, step-children, grandchildren, etc.

Eventually, his destiny led him to San Antonio in 1983 where he founded his roofing and home improvement company, Howell Enterprises, a legacy he left for his family as it is still family owned and operated to this day. In SA Jerry became involved as a participant and promoter of his churches’ choirs, and most recently the chorale group Friends in Harmony. He was a performer through and through and brought the whole family into the fold with his participation in community theater around town.

Jerry had three sons with his second wife Ardis to whom he was married for 23 years. Although he had many jobs, many passions, and many loves, he maintained that being a father to his three boys was his most important and fulfilling job, passion, and love in life.

The final 19 years of his life were filled with a great devotion to his last true love, Donna, who he was married to for 17 of those years. They traveled the globe together, watched their family’s superbloom as each of their adult-children continued to grow and multiplied through the introduction of even more grandchildren, and great grandchildren. His heart was shattered when she passed away in June of 2022.

He is preceded in death by his mother, Lillian, father, David Sr., brother, David Jr., step-son-in-law Matt Brymer, and wife Donna Glynn Hamrick Howell.

Jerry is survived by his sons, David Howell and his wife, Lauren, Trevor Howell and his wife, Kori, and Charlie Howell and his wife, Chloé; grandchildren, Rick, Lucas H., Aly, Gemma, and Jade; cousin, June Freeman (Don); step-daughters, Cathie Porter (Bill), Trisha Brymer, Susie Sheffield (Rodney), Amanda Frazier (John), and; step-grandchildren Jennifer, Ashley, Christy, Christopher, Jackson, Cade, and Lucas F.; and step-great-grandchildren, Kierstynn, Tatum, Hallie, Maddox, and Kai; Niece Judi Underwood (Greg) and nephew James Hamrick.

Memorial ServiceBracken Methodist Church20377 FM 2252, San Antonio, 78266Sunday, March 17th2:00 p.m.You may watch the recording of his memorial service by click here.

Graveside ServiceFort Sam Houston National CemeteryMonday, March 18th11:00 a.m., Shelter 1With United States Air Force Honors

Pallbearers will be David Howell, Trevor Howell, Charlie Howell, Lucas Howell, Cade Sheffield and Matthew Worthey. Honorary pallbearers will be Gemma Howell and Jade Laporte.