Howe, Arthur, Jr.

Arthur Howe Jr. was born on July 19, 1921 in Watertown, Connecticut to Rev. Arthur Howe, a professor at Dartmouth College and president of the Hampton Institute in Virginia, and Margaret Marshall Armstrong. His grandfather Samuel Chapman Armstrong was a Union general during the Civil War and founded Hampton as a trade school for freed slaves.

Howe graduated early from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, and then spent a year at the Rugby School in England from 1938-1939 under an exchange program sponsored by the English-Speaking Union. He entered Yale University (Class of 1943) in the fall of 1939.

In 1941 while still a student at Yale, Howe tried enlisting with the American Field Service (AFS), a volunteer ambulance organization serving with the French military overseas. The German occupation of France prevented Howe's initial service with AFS, however, until AFS realigned their involvement to serve with the British military instead. Howe reapplied as an ambulance driver and left for the Middle East with AFS unit ME 2, and served during the African Campaign in the Western Desert and the Italian Campaign. He was made a section leader, promoted to lieutenant, and then shortly after the Battle of El Alamein he took charge of the 11 Company (Coy), which was later rechristened as 567 Coy. Howe was medically discharged from AFS in December 1943 after the Sangro River fighting along the Italian east coast.

When he returned to the United States he served as a liaison for AFS in Washington and taught mathematics at the Hotchkiss School from 1944 to 1946. George Van Santvoord (WWI ambulance driver, SSU8) was his mentor. He finished his B.A. at Yale in 1947, went on to teach again at the Hotchkiss School in 1948, and in 1950 studied at Oxford for a year. While abroad, he served as a representative of the AFS student exchange programs, helping and counseling small groups of students who returned after studying abroad. After returning from England, Howe held several administrative positions at Yale, including assistant dean of freshman (1951-1953), director of admissions (1953-1955), and dean of admissions and student appointments (1955-1964), and also served on the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute (including serving as chair from 1957 to 1971.)

In 1965 Howe officially began his tenure as president of AFS International Scholarships, after having already been named a director of the student exchange programs in 1949. When Howe resigned from AFS in 1971, thirty-eight national offices were in operation for AFS worldwide. Since his presidential resignation, Howe has served on various committees and boards for AFS, including the AFS Veterans Committee, which ultimately helped obtain veterans benefits for many AFS World War I and II ambulance drivers under United States PL 95-202. He continues to stay active with AFS Intercultural Programs, including speaking at the opening of the Musée Franco-Américain du Château de Blérancourt in France on July 7, 1989, attending the AFS World War II 50th Reunion in Williamsburg, VA in 1995, serving as one of the organizers of the 1997 AFS Old Timers Reunion at the United Nations in New York, and also attending the AFS Germany 50th Anniversary Celebration in Frankfurt in May 1998. A former AFS Life Trustee (1972-1990 when he resigned) he was re-elected to the Board of AFS Intercultural Programs as a Life Trustee in 2007.

Howe has received many honors and awards throughout his life, including receiving the Hotchkiss Alumni Award in 1969. Howe was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on June 13, 1944, and received the 1939-1945 Star, the African Star with 8th Army Clasp, and the Italy Star for his services during the war.

Arthur Howe, Jr. married Margaret Mayo Burke ("Peggy"), who also served as an active volunteer with AFS, and together they had one daughter and three sons.

Art Howe passed away December 16, 2014 at his home in Essex, CT, at age 93.  His wife, Peggy, died May 15, 2016, she was almost 95.

[Bio courtesy of AFS Archives, New York]