The Partial Observer by Kristian Connolly

Hundreds Celebrate CCS, Community ‘Icon’ Howard

In an unusual scene the afternoon of Saturday, September 7 at Cooperstown Central School, it wasn’t until after the varsity football game ended that the parking lots around the high school began to really fill up with cars.

The reason? Hundreds of people gathered at the school’s auditorium to pay their respects, share remembrances, have a laugh, and perhaps even shed a tear or two as longtime influential community figure and CCS educator, coach, and athletics Hall of Fame member Don Howard was celebrated posthumously. Howard passed away in early June at the age of 82.

In a career at CCS that spanned more than three decades, Howard taught history and psychology and was a longtime coach of both boys JV basketball and boys varsity track and field. After 49 years living in Cooperstown, he and his wife of 44 years, Doris, split time between a camp in the Adirondacks and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina later in Howard’s life. 

Leading Saturday’s memorial service was Rev. Dr. Bonnie Orth, pastor of the Mayfield Central Presbyterian Church, near the shores of the Great Sacandaga Lake.

“This is a celebration of Don’s life, as it should be,” said Orth. “It was quite a life he had. I guess he was kind of famous in these parts. I can see that from the number of people who came…to celebrate Don’s life.”

The memorial service featured four speakers, each invited by Howard’s family as a representative of a group, or groups, of people who were integral in Howard’s life—Howard’s daughter, Kelly Howard Kerner, on behalf of the family; Frank Miosek, as a teaching and coaching colleague, fellow golfer, and neighbor; CCS alum Wayne Miller, as a student and athlete; and CCS alum Joe Kennedy, as an athlete and track and field coach.