His World and Welcome To It!

I too am very sad that Howie will no longer be presiding and laughing over family dinners where many happy memories have been created. I was closest to Claire, his oldest daughter, but the whole family was warm and welcoming. I especially treasured dinners in Mandeville Canyon, visits to Mammoth, and an enchanting spell in their Paris apartment with his wife Miriam and son Geoffrey back in the 1970's. 

I have lovingly saved all his annual Christmas letters where he wittily described the higher and lower roads taken by the family each year. I guess his style most reminded me of James Thurber who said: "All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why."

You left us all behind, waving to the sky.

love always...

I have great memories interacting with the Wilson household when I was a high school student. Claire Wilson, the oldest daughter, was my best friend, and I often had the opportunity to visit the family.  What I remember about 'Howie' (as his children called him) is that he and Miriam had such a warm and welcoming home, and that Howie had a phenomenal, dry sense of humor. At one point, they had a Volkswagen bus in which Howie had switched out the engine for a Corvair engine, which was much more powerful. He thought it was fabulous to outpace other cars on a fresh green light while driving what was characteristically a lumbering behemoth. He was a wonderful father. He allowed each of his children to be themselves, although there were some constraints.  When Paula's mountain goat, Tilly, insisted on standing on top of the kitchen table, that drove Howie around the bend. And dinner was a special time of watchfulness for Howie. As the children were 4 girls (Claire, Paula, Nicki, and Marla) and one teenage boy (Geoffrey) it was important to make sure that the food was passed in precise way around the table so Geoffrey did not get all that had been made by Bear (Miriam's mother, who lived with the family). For me, these experiences were precious windows into a special family. I will always cherish having had the opportunity to know and interact with all of them.  I know that they will all miss Howie deeply, but it was a tremendous gift to them that they had Howie with them for so much of their lives. 
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Howard Gene Wilson

February 4, 1922 – October 2, 2016

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