James A. Howard was born in Norfolk on March 8, 1918. He attended Norfolk’s Maury High School and then transferred to Oak Ridge Military Academy in North Carolina, graduating in 1937. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941 from the University of North Carolina. Mr. Howard was co-captain of the 1941 UNC basketball team with the two-time national player of the year, George Glamack.

After graduating from UNC in 1941, Mr. Howard enlisted in the Navy (just in time for Pearl Harbor) and was discharged as a Lieutenant Commander in Naval Intelligence in 1946. After the service, he went to Duke for law school and worked his way through as a Southern Conference football referee, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1949. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1950 and began practicing in Norfolk. Beginning in 1953 he was associated with the firm of Breeden, Howard and MacMillan engaged in a general practice in all state and federal courts, focusing on insurance, corporation, commercial, and personal injury law.

Mr. Howard was a leader in both civic and professional associations. A member of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association, he served as its president 1968-1969. Elected to serve as President of the Virginia State Bar for the 1973-1974 Bar year, he brought greetings from the State Bar to the summer meeting of the Virginia Bar Association held at the Greenbrier in August 1973. His remarks were memorialized in the proceedings of that meeting and reflected his folksy direct style and Tidewater upbringing. He related how he tried to respond to a question about whether having an “Integrated Bar” in Virginia meant that the Commonwealth was under the force of a federal decree requiring the state to bus lawyers. In addition, he commented on the emerging issues of no-fault legislation (automobile accidents, product liability, medical malpractice), the Tunney Commission dealing with lawyers’ fees, and Watergate. Howard was a member of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a State Delegate to the American Bar Association (1976-1984) and a member of the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary of the American Bar Association (1983-1990). Mr. Howard also served as president of the Duke Alumni Law Association and the Alumni Council of Duke University.

Appointed by Governor Albertis S. Harris, Jr., in 1962 as a member of the first Board of Visitors of Old Dominion College, Mr. Howard continued to serve on that Board until 1971. He was devoted to the College and tireless in his efforts to see the College advance after it became a four-year institution—having formerly been a two-year junior college known as the Norfolk Division of William and Mary College and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Following his service on the Board of Visitors, Mr. Howard served on the Board of Directors of the Old Dominion University Intercollegiate Foundation 1972-1976. This Foundation, which Mr. Howard helped to found, funds Monarch sports and Mr. Howard was considered the father of the athletic program. The Old Dominion University Library holds a special collection of papers accumulated by Mr. Howard during his tenure on these two boards. Some significant topics in these files include the Child Study Clinic, dormitories, the President's Home, the Physical Education Building, speaker regulations, and student disturbances. The collection totals six linear feet!

An active Mason, Mr. Howard was a member of the Khedive Temple of the Order of the Mystic Shrine. He was the chief organizer of the Oyster Bowl football game held at Old Dominion’s Foreman Field sponsored by the Khedive Temple to benefit orthopedically disabled children. A tribute to Mr. Howard published in The Virginian Pilot after his death bore the headline “Howard Made Area Sports His Oyster for a Selfless Half-Century.” The article quotes ODU athletic Director Jim Garrett observing that Mr. Howard “was a real player in those days. Old Dominion has been able to move to the stature it has today because of those people who really believed in having a major university and athletic program in Hampton Roads.” Through the years he hosted both Dean Smith and Coach K in his home.  Howard received the Norfolk Sports Club Sportsman of the Year award in 1977, a recognition he did not seek. He was known as a humble, selfless individual who worked hard and preferred to remain anonymous.

Mr. Howard died in October 1996 at age 76.