Howard, Richard A. (Richard Alden)

Richard Alden Howard (1917-) served as Vice President of Botanical Science at the New York Botanical Garden from 1989-1990. A systematic botanist whose specialty is economic botany and whose area of interest is the Caribbean, he performed extensive field work in the area, wrote over 300 papers and edited the six volume Flora of the Lesser Antilles. From 1954 to 1978, he served Harvard University as Arnold Professor of Botany and Director of the Arnold Arboretum. From 1978-1988 he was Professor of Dendrology. He was named Emeritus in 1988.

Richard A. Howard (1917- ) was the fifth Director of the Arnold Arboretum, from 1954-1978. He presided over the contested division of the Arboretum's books, herbarium and staff between Jamaica Plain and the new botany building in Cambridge. Howard focused on botanical and horticultural research, opening the Dana Greenhouses in 1962 and renewing Asian plant collecting expeditions, including mainland China, in the 1970's. In preparation for the Arnold Arboretum Centennial, 1972, Dr. Howard organized staff, Harvard, and the city officials to plan a week-long event that attracted several hundred people including representatives from ten foreign countries. Dr. Howard's research concentrated on the tropical family Icacinaceae, and he wrote the definitive six volume Flora of the Lesser Antilles.