Billy Roy Howard

Billy Roy Howard, 86, of Clear Lake, passed away Saturday, March 14, 2020, at his home in Clear Lake.

Funeral arrangements are pending at this time at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, Clear Lake.

Memorial contributions may be directed to the family and a charity will be established at a later date.

Billy loved a good joke, his family, pool, golf and a winning cribbage hand, in that order. Billy Roy Howard was born in 1934, the second child of Fern (Anderson) and Harley Howard. He joined his sister, Sheila, living in the same house he was born in, in Anita.   

In 1938, when Bill was four, his father, who was a prominent barber in Anita, passed away from complications due to a surgery to remove his appendix. They moved from Anita and into his grandparents’ house just south of Cumberland, Iowa.

In 1940, his mother married Lewis Curry and they moved to Massena, Iowa. Joining together two families, he now had three more sisters, Barbara, Marie and Jayne, and two brothers, Don and Billy Joe. He and his sisters would drive the ‘29 Chevy to a one room schoolhouse, Victoria #4. Once there, the girls let Bill take over driving and he would go get food for the cafeteria for that days lunch. In doing so, he would receive his meals for 25 cents. He graduated from Massena High School in 1951.

After graduation, he started working at what would be a lifelong career in the Atlantic office of the Iowa DOT. Taking a break for a few years to enlist in the Army in 1954. Boot camp was at Fort Leonardwood, Mo. for eight weeks, followed by Quarter Masters school at Fort Lee, in Virginia, then onto Metz, France, working as a typist. He could type 50 words a minute and started working for a lawyer. From there he was moved to Vasencourt, France to work as a telephone operator. Then on to Toul Army Base, in Nancy, France to work in their warehouse. He became close friends with several of his army buddies and was able to connect with a few later in life even driving out to visit a couple of them.

In 1956, he started with the Iowa DOT in Atlantic, Iowa and after a 10 week course in surveying, became a Party Chief. At a dance in Lewis, Iowa he met Sharon Hanks and they were married in 1959. From this marriage came his four children, Kim, Craig, Dana and Rhonda. In 1973, Bill married Karen Andersen and was transferred and promoted to run four crews out of the Mason City DOT office. With his new extended family consisting of four more children, Teresa, Randy, Mark and Steve Andersen, he moved to Clear Lake. In 1981, he moved to Britt, Iowa to work out of their office there until his retirement from the DOT in 1994.

Bill loved Clear Lake and Judy Lincoln. So in 1992, he moved back to Clear Lake and in 1994 married Judy. 

Although retired, Bill’s days of surveying were not over quite yet. He joined a surveying company out of Storm Lake for a couple years. In 1996, joined the McInitch Company, a crew that was building the Avenue of the Saints, as a stake setter for four years and two more years stake setting with a company out of Lake Mills, Iowa.

Bill was an avid pool player and played for several area teams including the Town Pump, VFW, and others. Bringing home the winning trophy a few years. He loved a good game of cribbage and helped start the first cribbage league in Clear Lake. He rode the RAGBRAI run a couple years, loved mingling with the Hobo’s in Britt, during Hobo days, eating their Mulligan stew down at the ‘Jungle’. He loved music, especially the blues, so when Muddy Waters was playing at the Surf, Bill was found right up front. Coming home with one of Muddy Waters’ guitar picks made his night.

Whenever there was a band playing downtown at the park, you’d find Bill in his lawn chair pretty much in the same spot every concert. Getting out and dancing with whomever. Dancing was a big part of Bill’s whole life.

He loved to golf and joined a group of golfers that went out twice a week. He lived for and loved those days. He enjoyed the camaraderie and jokes that flew around on and off the course. 

Most of all, Bill loved a good joke. He had quite the knack for telling stories too. His most recent joke was, ‘Bill’s Stool Sample’, which he brought to all his doctor appts. The nurses would watch in horror as he would open it up and shake it trying to get the ‘sample’ out and out it popped, a mini wooden stool! He made their day which in turn made his.

He loved his family and his friends with unconditional love. He helped people he hardly knew or had just met. No one was a stranger to him.  He was the family’s rock and it will be rough going on from here without him and his beautiful blue eyes and smile. His last wish was granted and he died peacefully at home surrounded by his family. 

Survivors include his four children; Kim Howard, Craig Howard, Dana Howard and Rhonda Madetzke; four grandchildren, Dustin Bieber, Tyler Madetzke, Collin Howard and Riley Brekke; two great-grandchildren, Dylan and Brady Bieber; sister, Colleen (Robert) Wilbur; brother, John (Conie) Curry; step sisters, Barbara Meyer and Marie Thayer; special cousin, Danny Anderson; lifelong friends, Jack Behmer and Gary and Holly Schoenrock.

Awaiting his arrival is his mother, Fern; father, Harley; mother of his children, Sharon; wife, Judy; his dancing partner and sister, Shiela Williams; his step brothers, Don Curry and Billy Joe Flemming; and step sister, Jayne Gallager. 

Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, Clear Lake, was in charge of arrangements.