Nicholas Clendon Howard

As a student at Auckland University, Nick was part of the top 5% of national scholars, where he earned his Commerce degree with excellence honors. He would go on to receive certification as an associate from the New Zealand Institute of Management. He was certified as an accountant and, in 1963, Nick won the Accountants’ and Auditors’ Association Auditing Prize from the New Zealand Society of Accountants. He was also a proud member of the Northern Club. Over a long career he worked for the National Bank of NZ, Crown Lynn, Ceramco, Great American Leatherworks, and Trade Am International.

Nick was an avid rugby fan and a gifted athlete. In New Zealand, he played first string for his university rugby team, was a runner up for the All Blacks, and was a pre-Olympic athlete. He was a keen sailor as well as an enthusiastic boxer whose hands were officially registered as “lethal weapons”, and who famously could not be knocked out.

Ever adventurous, in 1976 Nick and his family moved to Manila, in the Philippines, where he took the initiative in saving his employees from explosives and venomous snakes. He also once danced with Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines who famously owned 3,000 pairs of shoes (he was incredibly careful not to step on her toes, lest she take it upon herself to buy even more).

In 1984, when a coup was threatened in the Philippines, he and his daughter Robin fled the Manila and came to collect his sons from the States. Eventually they came to Atlanta, where Nick decided to make a home. In 1986 he and his wife Karen were married. He always referred to Karen as “the most beautiful woman he’d ever known,” and they remained side by side for the rest of his life.

Nick and Karen were proud patrons of the arts. Nick enjoyed opera and theatre, and happily supported the artistic efforts of Onstage Atlanta, Georgia Shakespeare, the Fox Theatre’s Theatre of the Stars and Broadway Across America, Georgia Ensemble, the Alliance Theatre, and the Atlanta Opera, and along with Karen was on the board for the Lyric Theatre. Equally interested in both sports and arts, Nick was also known by many as the best club rugby coach in the US, and was frequently greeted by enthusiastic calls of “Coach!” anywhere he went in the city. He trained the Life Chiropractic and Old White teams, as well as donating time to coach the University of Georgia Rugby team.

Nick will be remembered by those who loved him as a real character who was generous, strong, and always the life of the party.

Nicholas Howard is survived by his wife, Karen Morgan Howard, his children, Britten Howard (Sunde), Gregory Howard (Deenie), Robin Bell (Steve), and Morgan Howard, as well as his grandchildren Anna Howard, Charlie Howard, and Max Howard, Hannah Bell, Sydney Bell, Andie Bell, and Jack Walraven. He also leaves behind sister, Jane Hunter, niece Amanda Davies, and great-niece Charlotte Davies and great-nephew Campbell Davies.

A memorial service for Nick will be held on Friday, June 25th at 10:00 AM at St Philip’s Cathedral.

The family will receive friends immediately after the service with a reception in the church’s Court of Gratitude. Nick was a great supporter of the arts, so in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in memory of Nicholas Clendon Howard to the Atlanta Lyric Theatre and Onstage Atlanta.