Bill Howell

C. B. William Howell

C. B. William Howell was born Clarence Beveridge Howell on May 17, 1908, in Denver, Colorado. "Bill" was the only son of Harry Garfield Howell (son of Charles Frailey Howell and Lucy Amanda Butler) and Phoebe Cox (daughter of David Cox and Annie Muir). Harry and Phoebe had one other child, a daughter, Maurine Howell Moody who was born August 5, 1917, in Denver (the author's mother).

Bill's father owned the Howell Drug Company, operating in Brighten, Fort Lupton, Longmont and Denver. A typical druggist, Harry Howell worked long hours and saw little of his family. However, from the time Bill was a teenager, he spent most of his afternoons and evenings with his father working at the store. Howell, Sr. was an early progressive. He was an extensive advertiser and installed the first stepped-up counter cases and open displays in Colorado. A typical Howell operation was the purchase of a bankrupt store. The opening day saw only a few dollars available for operations. The following weekend would see a full page advertisement announcing cut price sales of a lot of odds and ends of shelf warmers and consumer deals on standard items. Bill was involved in these operations and they seem to have been the making of a druggist.

Bill graduated from North Denver High School in an older section of the Denver Highlands community located in the northwest part of the city. He entered the University of Denver College of Pharmacy and found in Charles J. Clayton, dean of the college, a mentor who dramatized for him the professional side of pharmacy. Bill graduated with a bachelor's degree in the spring of 1929 and married Hazel Marie Anna Hochmuth on October 7, 1929, at the home of Hazel's parents in Denver. Several years later, their first daughter, Margie Ann, was born in Denver. Soon after Margie's arrival, the family settled northeast of Denver in Fort Lupton, Colorado.

Soon though it became apparent that Margie needed a change of climate for health reasons and Bill traveled with his family to Arizona. In the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, he worked at Glendale Drugs and Eveready Drugs. However, return to Brighton, Colorado, and induction in the army followed not too many years later.

Called to Brighton, Colorado, from Phoenix after the death of his father, Bill became the second in the line of druggist Howells in the town. Bill opened his own drug store in Brighton in 1938. Bill merged the two Howell drug stores into one, moved to a corner location, remodeled, instituted open display and for five years the business flourished.

World War II was not expected to interfere too much with the lives of those in Bill's age group. A member of Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, involved in various community activities, Bill was on his way to becoming a leader in drug affairs in Colorado. Uncle Sam thought differently and Bill received his draft notice inviting him to become a member of the armed forces.

That meant just a few short days before induction. After searching somewhat futilely for a buyer, he was forced to sell the store at a sacrifice and reported for duty. He became a buck private in the army and was selected for officer's training in the O.C.S. A candidate in the O.C.S. was subjected to a very thorough physical and much to Bill's surprise he failed to pass. A few days later he was out of the army. His return to Brighton was a devastating and morale-shaking experience. It was Hazel who suggested a move to California.

The move to California was delayed by 4 years--years in which he detailed for Sharp & Dohme in Denver and learned a new and important phase of the drug business. Their second daughter, Karen Lee, was born in Denver at that time and soon after the family of four headed west to Los Angeles. After applying for positions with a number of pharmaceutical houses, Bill accepted an offer for a detail position with A. H. Robins Company, Inc. As A. H. Robins expanded, Bill's successes mounted.

In 1959, the family moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Bill became Vice President of A. H. Robbins. In 1970, he retired as president of Geigy Pharmaceuticals in New York and he and Hazel returned to California. He served on the board of counselors at the University of Southern California of Pharmacy and received an honorary doctorate at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where the School of Pharmacy was named in his honor. He also served on the board of directors of Allergan Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, California. Bill was a member of Rotary International for 55 years. After Hazel died in 1987, Bill moved to the Couer d'Alene, Idaho, area to live with his daughter, Margie, and her husband Jim Porter. Bill passed away in Couer d'Alene on October 13, 1992, and was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park, Newport Beach, California.