Lou Howard, Was Suffolk Legislator
Lou Howard was many things: a former mayor of Amityville, a driver’s education teacher, a football coach at Amityville High School, a newspaper publisher, a Suffolk legislator, a New York State assemblyman, a creator of the aerospace program at the State University of New York at Farmingdale, and a former member of the Stony Brook University Council and State University of New York Board of Trustees.
Mr. Howard, who lived in Amityville and had been a part-time resident here with a house on Montauk Highway in Amagansett since 1977, died on Jan. 25 at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage after complications from a hiatal hernia, his family said. He was 92.
He was born in Bay Shore on Dec. 16, 1923, to Louis Howard and the former Grace Conklin, and grew up in Amityville, where he was an all-scholastic linebacker in his high school days.
He was a driver’s education teacher and varsity football coach at Amityville High School between 1953 and 1968, during which time his team won nine straight county championships and earned six Rutgers Cup trophies. Known to his players as Uncle Lou, he never had a losing season. He was inducted into the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame, Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame, Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame, and Amityville High School Hall of Fame, among others.
He also won election to several public offices. In 1963, he won a village trustee seat in Amityville as an independent and later served two terms as mayor.
He was elected to the Suffolk Legislature, where he represented the Ninth Legislative District for a decade, before serving one term in the New York State Assembly, then returning to the Suffolk Legislature for six more years. He was also the publisher of the Amityville Record, a weekly newspaper.
Mr. Howard, who had a doctorate in aerospace technology from Western Colorado University, helped launch the aerospace program at SUNY Farmingdale. He served as its first department chairman and wrote a textbook for pilots on instrument landing systems. He flew a plane on his 90th birthday during a celebration at the college.
“Lou was an aviation pioneer, and was instrumental in making the curriculum relevant, challenging, and highly-regarded throughout academia and the aviation industry,” Hubert Keen, president of SUNY Farmingdale, said in a statement.
He was survived by his wife of 67 years, the former Margaret Webber, and his seven children, Thomas Howard, Maureen Eustace, Patrick Howard, Margaret Ostermann, Jane Schmitt, and Louis Howard III, all of Amityville, and Bruce Howard of Montauk. He is also survived by 20 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.
His funeral was held on Jan. 31 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Amityville.