By James Irwin
Ron Howard connected with many people in his nearly four-decade career at the George Washington University. But his lasting legacy, friends said Monday, may be that he connected people with each other.
“Ron created networks of people,” said Gary Granoff, B.B.A. ’69, J.D. ’73. “He made it a point to introduce us to each other. Many of us have created lifelong friendships with people we met through Ron.”
Mr. Granoff, an emeritus member of the university Board of Trustees, and dozens of Mr. Howard’s family, friends and former colleagues—including his brother, Don Howard, and Vice Provost and Dean of Student Affairs Peter Konwerski, B.A. ’91, M.A. ’94, Ed.D ’97—gathered Monday to celebrate his life and legacy at a rededication of his portrait in Rice Hall. A former university admissions and development and alumni relations staff member, Mr. Howard (1934-1999) was a popular member of the campus community from 1964 to the late 1990s, known for his willingness to help students in need.
An emergency assistance fund that provides support for students with unanticipated expenses was established in his honor in 1997. To date, the fund has helped more than 250 students in emergency situations, covering last-minute plane tickets home to see a dying parent or the purchase of a replacement computer during the academic semester. Effective next fall, it will be available to graduate and professional students, in addition to undergraduate students.
“Ron did things for people that they couldn’t get from other places,” said Elliott School of International Affairs Professor Edward “Skip” Gnehm, B.A. ’66, M.A. ’68, who set up the fund along with Mr. Granoff, Brian Buzzell, B.A. ’69 and now-Sen. Mark Warner, B.A. ’77. “We wanted to create a fund that could give to students in need when there wasn’t another way of getting it—the same way Ron helped them when he was here.”
Edward "Skip" Gnehm, one of four alumni who established the Ron Howard Student Assistance Fund, provides remarks at Monday's event honoring the longtime GW staff member. (William Atkins/GW Today)
Maddison Bruer, a senior in the Elliott School, received support from the fund to cover medical expenses. She left Monday’s ceremony with a better understanding of who Mr. Howard was as a person.
“Being a recipient made me feel like I was a part of that legacy,” she said. “[The fund] says a lot about how he meant so much to so many students.”
What she learned was what many in the room have known for years. Mr. Howard loved to tell jokes and had an abundance of social energy. He was famous around campus for taking his camera with him to every event. He had a huge heart, Mr. Gnehm said.
“The biggest problem was when you came back to campus or talked to him on the phone he started telling you about the 101 people he’d spoken to within the last few hours,” he said. “[Ron] figured if he knew them, you had to know them, too.”
The portrait, produced after Mr. Howard’s death, was painted by artist Bradley Stevens, B.A. ’76, M.F.A. ’79, and formerly was displayed in the John Quincy Adams House. It will now reside in Rice Hall, in a conference room used by student affairs and enrollment management staff—two areas in which Mr. Howard worked and about which he was passionate—as a reminder of his service to the university and care for others.
“Ron basically had two families: those of us related by blood and his George Washington family,” Don Howard said. “He sincerely appreciated everything everybody did. We are appreciative as family that Gary, Skip and Brian and Mark put this [fund] together, and that they did it while Ron was alive.”