Harris Milton Howe

Harris Milton Howe passed away on January 16, 2021 after a long struggle with Lymphoma and Leukemia. He was 73 years old.  He was a sixth generation Texan whose roots in the State went back to 1824.  He was directly descended from John R Harris, the founder of Harrisburg and the namesake of Harris County and Andrew Briscoe, who commanded an infantry company at the Battle of San Jacinto and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the San Jacinto Chapter of the Sons of the Republic of Texas.

H. Milton Howe was born on August 27, 1947 in St Joseph's Hospital in Houston to Knox Briscoe Howe and Dorothy Trone Howe. He grew up in the family home at the corner of San Jacinto and Elgin and he always took great pride in saying his roots were "downtown" and on the "east·side·of·Main-Street".  He attended the Kinkaid School in Houston and graduated from Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, FL. He matriculated to The University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with a BBA in Finance in 1969 and was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

In July 1969, Milton was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps.  It was his great good fortune to spend most of his military service in Germany as the Housing Officer for Munich and Southern Bavaria where he ultimately attained the rank of Captain.  His three years in Europe and the Alpine paradise around Munich and Bavaria was a life-altering period of wonder and fulfillment. Milton's captivating storytelling skills created a priceless oral history of his personal experiences there.

In the spring of 1973 Milton returned to Houston and since that time has been involved in the real estate and construction business both on his own and as President of Landgrant Resources of Texas, Ltd., a family limited partnership with residential, commercial, and agricultural holdings in Harris, Ft. Bend, Brazoria, and Val Verde counties.  He was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of the Houston Downtown Management District.

Milton was one of the first builder/developers to exploit the potential of the Washington Avenue Corridor in 1978 and he was a pioneer in converting loft warehouses into residential units in downtown Houston in 1982. More recently, as President of Landgrant Resources, he was instrumental in the development of a 350MW industrial solar-power farm on 4,500 acres in Ft Bend County, Texas creatingjobs and clean, renewable energy.  "Now, we're part of the solution," he was happy to say.

Milton loved to socialize with his friends and colleagues and was a longtime member of The Houston Club and The Forest Club. He was a member of The River Oaks Breakfast Club and served many years as a dedicated volunteer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

In October 1984 Milton married the love of his life and his true North, Jane Catlin Wiley, in Paducah, KY. They were blessed with two sons, Knox Briscoe Howe, II and Edward Alexander Howe. His family was everything to Milton. He was enormously proud of them all and grateful to God that he and Jane were granted the privilege and joy of raising their two outstanding sons.

Milton was a lifelong member of the First Presbyterian Church of Houston and as a Christian he had an unwavering faith in the existence of a benevolent and loving God and in a welcoming hereafter.  He is predeceased by his mother and father; his sister, Dorothy-Knox Howe Houghton and his brother-in-law, Thomas W. Houghton, his mother and father-in-law,George Emerson Wiley and Doris Catlin Wiley and brother-in-law, Zebulon Dickey Wiley. He is survived by his wife, Jane; his sons, Knox and wife Jamie and Alexander and fiancee, Caroline Frank, nieces Rowena Houghton Dasch and her husband Kevin of Austin and Adele Houghton Autrique and her husband Fernando and their families and cousin, Dr. Mary Elizabeth White of Austin. Also surviving are his beloved sister-in-law, Caroline Wilson and her husband Dave and nephew Wiley of Davis, California and brother­ in-law, George Emerson Wiley, Jr and wife Kate of West Munroe, Louisiana.

The family would like to offer special thanks to Milton's doctors at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Dr. Louis Fayad; Department of Lymphoma, Dr. Richard Champlin; Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Dr. Guillermo Montalban Bravo; Department of Leukemia. They and their excellent support teams served tirelessly to both prolong and improve the quality of Milton's life.

A graveside service honoring his life has been rescheduled for Friday, May 7, 2021 at half past three in the afternoon at Glenwood Cemetery, 2525 Washington Avenue. A reception with the family will follow at a location to be shared at the graveside.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in Milton's name to the Houston chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Houston.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm23:6