Philip E. Howes

A native of North Canton, he practiced law for 52 years from offices in Canton, was one of only three lawyers in Stark County to be admitted to the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers and served as president of the county bar association, among many professional duties.

He relished the intellectual combat of lawyering – the reading and research, the arguments and the theater of what Teddy Roosevelt called “the arena,” the primacy of truth, facts and integrity in an era that seems to accord those bedrock qualities increasingly less respect than they deserve.

He earned a statewide reputation defending clients in major litigation in courtrooms across the state, including before the Supreme Court of Ohio. At the time of his death, Howes was a partner in Milligan Pusateri Co., LPA. Over his 52-year career he practiced with some of the finest lawyers in Stark County and was known to be a fierce defender of his clients’ interests.

But Howes’s law career did not define him. He loved his wife of nearly 52 years, Carolyn, their three children and their families. He nurtured his family’s cottage, Charmyr, a modest second home on the rocky shores of Stoney Lake in southern Ontario. He puttered obsessively in his woodworking shop attached to the garage, a brown fedora often perched on his head.

He loved his church, Zion United Church of Christ in North Canton, devotion exemplified by decades teaching a Sunday school class started by his father and two terms leading the church’s governing Consistory. He zealously supported the mission of Young Life, a nondenominational Christian outreach to high school kids that he helped found in Stark County in 1968.

Howes was born Oct. 9, 1935, in Canton. He graduated from North Canton High School in 1953; earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Penn State in 1957; and earned a law degree from Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland in 1960, the same year he married Carolyn S. Mote of Dayton, OH.

He was a past president of the Stark County Bar Association, a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1985, a member of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel, a former board member of the Plain Local Schools Foundation, a volunteer for Aultman Hospital, a member of the Upper Stoney Lake Association and a longtime member of the Lay Academy of Religion at the College of Wooster.

He is survived by his wife, Carolyn Howes; his son, Daniel Howes (Margarite Fourcroy) of Dearborn, MI; daughters Meghan Howes (Sandy Woodson) of Denver and Sarah Howes McIntosh (Angus) of North Canton; granddaughter Isabelle Howes of Dearborn, MI; step-granddaughter Mary McIntosh of North Canton; step-grandsons Angus Murdoch McIntosh and Jonathan McIntosh; and mother-in-law Mary E. Boehme.

Other survivors include nephews Charles F. Howes of Chicago and Mark Howes of Colorado; nieces Nancy Sauls of Virginia, Suzi Moran of Colorado, Marcha Howes of Chicago and Kristine Chalifoux of North Carolina; and sister-in-law Donna M. Howes of Colorado.

He was preceded in death by his father, Charles E. Howes, his mother, Myrtle E. Howes, and his brothers, Charles E. Howes II and Daniel E. Howes.

Calling hours are scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9, at Karlo-Libby Funeral Home, 5000 Everhard Rd. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 10, at Zion United Church of Christ, 415 S. Main, North Canton. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Young Life of Stark County, Zion United Church of Christ Bicentennial Fund, and The Women’s Board of Aultman Hospital Tribute Fund.