Rockford Register Star: Life & Style 18 May 2008

"A Book Those Who Love America Will Cherish"

By Edith C. Webster

Being a former Rockford College president, John A. Howard can communicate with those in the highest levels of academia.

However, he did not write his new book for professors and other academics.

“It’s not meant to be a scholarly book,” Howard said. “It is a series of reflections, written for Boy Scouts, grandchildren and the man next door.”

“Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society (1620-1945)” received an endorsement from noted British historian and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Paul Johnson:

“Dr. Howard has written a powerful and highly readable series of reflections. ... This is a book those who love America will cherish and learn from.”

With chapters covering “The Nineteenth Century: An explosion of religious and moral creativeness” and “The Withdrawal of Literature and Education from the Role of Civilizing the People,” Howard wrote a response to a society that has turned college graduates into “cultural orphans,” he said.

“It is presumptive for someone who has never taken a course in theology to write about Christianity,” he said, “but I thought it was important that an educator write this.”

Howard spent three years writing the book, but a lifetime of experiences contributed — from his religious upbringing to heralded service in World War II to his college presidency during the turbulent 1960s.

“Religion is the foremost influence on our society, (but) for seven or eight decades, schools have failed to tell their students,” he said.

Howard is senior fellow at The Howard Center For Family, Religion and Society, a Rockford think tank named in his honor when it was founded in 1976. It was meant as an honor, but Howard resisted the gesture.

“It was named for me over my strenuous objections,” the 86-year-old native of Evanston said. “I said, ‘You can’t do this to me. That’s for dead people.”

But just as family, religion and society are focal points for Howard Center, so are they for the man, as evidenced by a look around his office:

• Family photos, including snapshots of his grandchildren, outnumber degrees or other personal accolades.

• The largest image is the portrait of his great-grandfather, John Manny, one of the founding members of 2nd Congregational Church.

• And there is the framed copy of a handwritten note he received from President Ronald Reagan.

The Howard Center’s greatest effect has been its organizing of pro-family forces from around the world for four World Congress of Families gatherings.

The conferences may have given John Howard international recognition, and he is proud of how the center has grown, but he does not act with legacy in mind. Rather, he’s motivated by the deaths of friends he saw in the war, he said.

“I decided then that I wanted to spend my life explaining and promoting the ideals we were fighting for.”

About John A. Howard

Career: Senior fellow, The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, 1997 to present; director, then president, The Rockford Institute, 1976 to 1986; president, Rockford College, 1960 to 1977; instructor, dean of students, then president, Palos Verdes College of Rolling Hills, Calif., 1947 to 1955.

Books: “Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society (1620-1945)”; “Detoxifying The Culture”; contributing author to six others.

Education: Attended Princeton University, 1939-42; received Bachelor of Science, master’s and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University.

Family: Married, with four children and nine grandchildren.

Finding the book

“Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society (1620-1945)” is available at:  [Click Here]

Staff writer Edith C. Webster may be reached at 815-987-1394 or ewebster@rrstar.com.