Trad Gang
Legends and Pioneers => Jack Howard => Topic started by: PAPALAPIN on November 02, 2005, 11:29:00 AM
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It is with a sad and heavy heart that I report the passing of my hero, and good friend, JACK HOWARD.
On Saturday, October 29, 2005, JACK HOWARD passed away at the age of 83, in Nevada City, CA. He is survived by his wife Dorothy. They had no children.
Many of you on TRADGANG had the honor of trading posts with Jack, and remember what a great guy he was. He was considered by many of us to be one of the best Bowyers ever. His CLASSIC and JET model bows were also considered by many to be the best bows ever made.
According to his wife, Jack began making bows in 1947, the same year they were married. He continued making bows until this year, still working on some shortly before his death. Jack had developed some unique methods in his bow production; methods not used by any other bowyer. The end result was a product that was not matched by many other bows. That is a career of 58 years. All bows were made 100% by him, from start to finish. No one else ever had any hand in producing his bows. That has to be the longest career of a single bowyer that I know of.
Jack was also one of the pioneers of modern bow hunting. He was one of the original BIVY HUNTERS in that he would back-pack into his favorite hunting countries for up to a week at a time, alone. His exploits and contributions to traditional archery will be remembered by many for years to come.
By now, he is in that Happy Hunting Ground, sitting around a campfire swapping lies with the likes of Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Ben Pearson, and others.
Jack's website can be seen at www.jacksgamemaster.com (http://www.jacksgamemaster.com)
He will be sadly missed.
So it is with fond memories that I say farewell to my hero, my friend, JACK HOWARD.
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That's a real bummer. He had a good life and was liked by many, and I'm sure he will be missed.
Goose
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My deepest sympathies go out to his family and all who called him friend. He was a definate icon of the traditional community. I have no doubt he'll be missed greatly.
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Got Jack's email last night, a very sad day for our commmunity. Prayers out to his family and friends who are left with a large emptiness from Mr. Howard's passing.
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Prayers from Arkansas for his Wife and friends to find compfort in his and His peace.
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In prayer this morning , for one of the fore fathers in archery ....God bless...its sad mark#78... I remember his stories and adventures as a young kid , in many archery magazines.
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Blessings to him on his way, and to those left behind.
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I never had the chance to meet Jack but he has left his mark and will be remembered for many years to come. I wish peace for his family and freinds.
JL
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Sad news. The guy is a legend. Godspeed to family and friends.
TOMANO
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Prayers for his wife for comfort in these times of great sorrow. Our Loss for sure but heaven's gain...Mac~
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I've only spoken with Jack a couple of times, But the one thing that stands out the most was that he's going to do it his way, Period.
I'm sure that's how he lived his life, his way.
We have most assuredly lost an archery great.
My prayers for his eternal salvation,his wife I pray for her peace and strength in Jesus name, Amen.
Hutch
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Sad to hear this news...thanks for sharing.
I wish his family peace in their time of need.
Take Care,
Marc
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Gone but never forgotten.
May his legacy live forever.
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Another icon gone. I'm glad that we have those who can keep his stories, his legacy, and his bows alive.
God Bless his family and friends.
Claudia
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Anyone that has orders in for bows, please be patient. Phil and I are doing what we can to help Ms. Dorothy to settle up any orders she can. Orders that cannot be fulfilled will have their deposits or full payments returned. To help us in this effort, if you have sent money to Jack as a deposit or full payment, please e-mail me your complete contact information to include name, address, all phone numbers, e-maill address,and what you had on order. As soon as Ms. Dorothey can get things a bit settled down, she will make every effort to settle up. Jack had some bows that were ready for the final finish. I suggested to her that she sell them at a reduced price and let the owners send them the Bowdoc, Droptine59, or others that can finish them. The sanding is all done on most so the finishing price should be reasonable. However, Ms Dorothey would rather issue a refund rather than sell with a guarantee as she has no way of replacing bows under warranty. Before you agree to a refund, keep in mind that these bows may be the most collectible Howard bows ever, since they are the absolute last that he produced.
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My condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Howard.
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God Bless his family and friends. May they find peace in their time of sorrow. Amen!
God Bless!
Jim
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My Deepest Sympathy for the Howard Family. I spoke to Jack numerous times over the years. A great guy, a true Icon to the sport of Bowhunting and Bowbuilding.
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I cannot express how I felt when Jack's wife told me of his passing. I knew he wasn't well but never expected him to be gone so soon. I wish I had gotten to know him decades ago. He was set in his ways, but he didn't compromise his beliefs just to please others. I respect him for that. Plus he made a heck of a bow.
Phil
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Prayers for the Family. Sad day indeed.<><
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My prayers and those of Danny Long (Ric O'Shay) go out to the family and friends of this fine man. As Jack said, "He will be sorely missed".
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I am thankful to have known Jack Howard in the short time that i did. He ranks right up there with the all time great's of this sport that we love.
It saddens me to have heard this news.
We will miss his contributions to this site, and for bowhunting in general.
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My heart is heavy. I'd ask all you guys and gals to shoot some arrows in memory of Jack.
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Prayers sent to the Mrs. It sucks that some of the best go Dang early.
KenWood
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Another legend Passes! Condolences to his family.
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I'm saddened by the loss of Jack Howard. As a hunter and bowyer, he was and has remained one of my heroes since my boyhood.
But I choose not to mourn his passing. Instead I choose to celebrate his life and what it has meant to me.
As a boy I read countless articles about Jack in the archery periodicals of the time. Archery World, Bow and Arrow Magazine, Archery and later, even Bowhunter Magazine told of his adventures.
Jack was first and foremost a hunter. In his youth he was known to have jumped on the back of a mule deer and killed it with a knife.
Jim Dougherty, who shot Jack's bows to very good effect in the sixties and was a friend of Jack said something to the effect of... "Jack Howard shoots game with the cool detachment of a machine". High praise from a man who would make his life shooting game with bow and arrow.
I doubt there was a high profile bowhunter out there during the 50', 60's, and 70's who didn't admire and respect what Jack Howard consistently did in the game fields with his hand crafted bow and arrows. You'd have had to be the village idiot to not know Jack was at the top of the heap when it came to hunting.
In a time when little was known about realistic bugles and cow elk calls, Jack brought in huge bull elk.
Very few bowhunters of his period made a habit of hunting elk with a bow let alone hunting specific animals.
Jack expected a lot out of himself, his hunting companions and his equiptment.
He'd often go off into the wilderness of our western mountains alone with minimal camp equiptment. (a run down of his gear for a 5 day stay was printed in the old Kittredge Bow Hut catalog. If I remember right, the whole kit didn't weigh over 15 pounds... most of us carry more than that when we go to our deer stands!
Jack would have scouted his quarry in advance and taking advantage of his light camp and good optics he'd watch (sometimes for days) to find the very best approach or set up to shoot a particular animal. Only when he was sure did he move in for the kill.
Often for elk that would mean building a small blind near a favored travel route to feed or water.
As was common in the west in those days, his shooting position would often be a minimum of 30 yards from where the anticipated shot would be... and at almost twice the effective range of most of todays archers he would cooly capitalize on his shooting advantage and execute the shot with surgical precision.
His bows too reflected his preferred style of hunting. They were long by today's standards... 66" until later in life when he started producing his beloved "Gamemaster" in 64" to meet the demand for a shorter bow.
His unique and inovative techniques in bow making produced a very fast bow for the time and even for this time! It was and is dead stable on release and made to such exacting standards that he could duplicate the shooting characteristics of a particular bow just by pulling up it's registration card.
"Making weight" wasn't a problem for Jack. His bows were so meticulously made that at the very most a bow might come in a pound or two above finish weight.
The Gamemaster was a true custom bow in a time when there were few or no custom bowyers out there.
It always looked the same, but that really isn't what "custom" is about. Looks are just cosmetic... how the bow shoots in the hands of the customer and his form is what makes a bow truly custom and Jack knew exactly how to make the best shooting bow for a particular style.
Never happy to accept the status quo, Jack even experimented with string material to find what he thought was best from his bows.
What he found flew in the face of traditional thinking.
At a time when everyone was thinking "no stretch" meant higher arrow speeds, Jack found a material which did stretch and improved the performance of his bows as well as being very easy on the bow.
I'm humbled that he shared his secret with me and gave me permission to market that material myself.
I quite agree with his findings, but doubt it would ever gain acceptance over material marketed by the "big names" in string manufacture.
As trad archers, we are a hard headed lot, but vulnerable to "hype".
Jack spent many years as an instinctive archer, but it was his use of sights on his recurve bow that really set him apart from other bowhunters of the time.
For the most part it was thought that a sight couldn't be effectively used for hunting... Jack shot that theory full of holes.
He was a master of judging distance and as has been said, cool as a cucumber at the moment of truth.
He was also a problem solver of the first degree. Unhappy with broadheads in those early days and there cutting/ edge holding abilities, he started using heavy duty razorblades to his multiblade heads. He may have been the first to do so and certainly not the last as today's trend in replaceable blade heads will attest.
At a time when good quivers josteled and crowded broadhead arrows together, he developed a side quiver which held his arrows separate and securely. Ready in razor sharp condition to leap safely into the hands of the bowhunter... we see many variations on that theme today.
In the days before "Bowhunter Magazine" put the push on to remind hunters to keep their broadheads razor sharp Jack was making sure they were... in those days only the very serious bowhunters seemed to realize intuitively that an arrow needed to be razor sharp to be as effective as they could be.
He set a high standard for broadhead sharpness as in everything else he did.
Yes, losing Jack Howard (who I had come to know over these past few years) leaves an empty spot deep inside me, but I owe who I am as a bowhunter to Jack. He raised the bar for me as a hunter and made it all seem quite possible to reach and even exceed his standards.
Boy to man and now closing in on old age myself, I have always known Jack Howard, bowyer, bowhunter and he will forever live on in my heart, drawing a steady shaft to anchor on some huge old bull or pussyfooting through the sage to anchor a heavy horned mule deer buck.
Thank God for Jack Howard!
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Prayers from GA.
Thanks Charlie.
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Charlie, thank you sir.
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Well done, Charlie... very well done.
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Jack Millet.... just so you know, I will personally put the finish on any of Jack's Gamemasters that remain "unfinished"... no charge.
I think Jack would be proud of the finish I can put on his bow.
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One thing that Jack Howard mentioned to me that illustrates his ability and dedication was that he never lost an animal that he hit with an arrow. Considering the number of animals he killed over his long career, that's quite an accomplishment.
Phil
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Excellent post Charlie, a fitting remembrance.
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CHARLIE
What a great testimonial to Jack. If we all could have gotten together for a memorial service, I could not think of a better Eulogy.
You have a way with words that challenges MR. SACKETT.
Like you, as a teenager, I grew up drooling over Jack's stories and ads that appeared in Archery Magazines. I always admired him and wished that I could afford to get one of his bows in the early '60's. I now have 8 of them, and more importantly became good friends with him via e-mail and telephone over the last 6 years. It was great to make his acquaintence. It was an honer to call him "FRIEND".
Ms. Dorothy may take you up on the offer for refinishing. I have traded e-mail with Bowdoc. He is agreeing to finish all that need it, of course at a charge. Also, Bowdoc always has a backlog of work. Your offer may be her best bet, but I would think it only fair that you get something for your efforts. I recommended to her that she sell theses bows at a reduced rate and let the buyers make arrangements to have them finished by Bowdoc, Droptine59, or anyone they want. However, any of these bows will have to be sold with no warranty or guarantee as Ms. Dorothy has do way of replacing a defective bow. Now, that is an oxymoron. A defective Jack Howard bow. I don't think there ever was such a thing. Jack once told me that he had never had to honor his warranty, or his guaranty that his bows were faster than anything you were currently shooting, or your money back.
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After reading what everyone posted here it strikes me that Mr Howard was one that gave much to this great lifestyle.
Not only did he raise the bar high for the rest of us, he provided the tools and insite on how to get there.
I have a few emails that I traded and will now cherish even more.
Thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and those close. RS
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When I first got into archery, I wanted to know all of the whos, whys, whats and wheres; in particular, the whos of the sport.
I always looked for the escapades of Jack Howard in Bow and Arrow magazine; he most often hunted alone but many times his friend Doug Kittredge tagged along. Do yourself a favor and get ahold of some of the old Bow and Arrow magazines from the 60's and early 70's and look for his articles.
It's sad to have lost him, but it is even sadder to know that many will just follow-up with a "Jack who (?)" when his name is mentioned. I'm sure his old buddy, Doug Kittredge is heart-sick. Prayers from Pennsylavnia.
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Thanks to everyone for your comments. I spoke to Mrs. Howard today and told her of all the comments that have been made. She was touched. She is not a computer person so she cannot log on to TRADGANG to read them, so I printed out all the comments made to this point and mailed them to her. I know she will appreciate them.
I hope that when my time comes and someone posts my passing here, that I can get 1/10 of the positive comments tht you have given Jack.
NAW, most of you will probably say
"Good ridance".
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Sorry for your loss. Anyone got pics of his art work? Or pics of him to post?
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Here's one from around 40 years ago...
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/JackHowardMuley.jpg)
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Here is the Howard Gamemaster. The bow of my dreams from childhood.
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/GamemasterHomeR.jpg)
I own two of them now.
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Here's the Jet brochure cover. This bow has the best grip of any bow I've ever owned or shot.
(http://www.pmagistro.com/jet/jet_brochure_cover.jpg)
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Almost forgot the Articles and Stories section... thanks Johnny! :thumbsup:
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My condolences and prayers to Dorothy!
Very sorry to here of this. Was plannning on visiting with Jack sometime this Winter.
Papalapin;
Please email me at [email protected]
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I remember Jacks stories of a grizzly around his tent and him sitting up all night. I was honored to have owned one of his bows in my early years of bowhunting. It is sad when legends pass,however he leaves us with tales of adventure and great bows. His family with great memories of a life lived the way he wanted to live it. Our family's prayers to his wife
Hacksaw
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Charlie,
Would you mind copying and pasting your 1st post to the Articles/Stories forum?
And, if anyone has any good pics of Jack I wish you would send them to me via email.... we'll add them to Charlie's comments on that forum as well as put up a tribute banner.
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Will do chief!! :thumbsup:
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I emailed,with Jack a few times,and always said,i was gonna get up to that shoot,and meet him personally,but never got around to it.Thats one of them things,that ill always regret.He was darn sure,one of the greats of the lifestyle.
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Sorry to hear of Jack's death. I ordered one of his catalogs about 15 years ago, and it was a goldmine of information. I also remember he wrote a personal note in the front of it. I think I still have it, am gonna look for it later. I'll bet the price just went up on those bows of his that are still around... never seen or shot one but by all accounts they are the best recurves made. My prayers for his wife and those who knew him personally.
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KELLY
I have tried to e-mail and phone you several times, tono avail. E-mails get kicked back, and phone calls indicate not a good numner. Please e-mail or PM me.
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Not too many years ago I read the Jack Howard articles on this site. Dang that man lived and breathed archery everyday for the better part of 70 years. His hard earned knowledge back in the day was groundbreaking and he was certainly one of the pioneers of our shared passion/sport today. My condolences to his wife and friends.
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A great loss. Unless you have read one of his catalogs you wouldn't know that he was one of the great innovators of bowhunting. He thoughts on arrows, broadheads, bows were ahead of the times. Also he thoughts on lightweight bivac camping were probably a first on that concept. Again a grest loss.
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I, too, recall awaiting the arrival of my first Jack Howard catalog when I attended high school in the mile high Arizona juniper flats. My hunting fanny pack still has a set of anvil pruning shears as he recommend they were the best kind. How could I disagree then, or now? I just checked my broadhead box, and found four Bear Razorheads that I had glued half of a double edged razor blade to with the recommended Pliobond adhesive cured in my mom's oven. I recall I had to get it mail order from some place. Talk about a pack rat, that was fourty years ago before 26 years in the Army, and I still have them. Just proves that his advise was always worth while. I would have loved to have sat around a campfire with him and just listen. My prayers to his wife and family. John Wilson
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Condolences to the family.
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Prayers for him and his family.
It would be nice if his articles and catalog could be compiled and printed.
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Coincidently I was just reading the March 1966 NFAA magazine that the above antelope picture was originally published in. Sad to hear of the passing of a true icon of archery.
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ARTICLES AND STORIES posted on TRAD GANG by, or about, JACK HOWARD for your reading pleasure
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000122
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000114
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000110
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000109
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000108
http://tradgang.com//noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000106