Robertson Howard
(1847-1899)

Robertson Howard was born December 11, 1847, the son of Flodoardo R. and Lydia Maria (Robertson) Howard, in Brookeville, Maryland.

His mother was of solid Quaker stock, which has contributed much to American life. His father was a descendant of the family of Howards, who were of royalty, prominent for years in England in romance and in politics. The Maryland branch of the Howard family was very influential in the colonial period and is still prominent. The name has been preserved in one of the best-known counties of the state and Howard Street is an important Baltimore thoroughfare.

Young Howard was educated in the old Brookeville Academy, which had been founded in 1808 by his ancestors. About the time the Civil War broke out, Dr. Flodoardo R. Howard, the father of Robertson, moved to Washington, where he purchased the site now occupied by Washington's largest department store. Here the father had his office during the stirring years of the War and it was just across the street from this office that Lincoln's assassination took place at Ford's Theater on the night of April 14, 1865.

Since young Howard was of Quaker stock, he probably took no active part in the Civil War on either side, though he did hospital work among wounded or disabled soldiers during the War.

Howard entered the University of Virginia with an unusual distinction: he already held the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Georgetown University, where his father had been the founder and one of the first professors of medicine of that institution.

Since young Howard had graduated at Georgetown when he was only eighteen years of age, he was considered too young to begin the practice of medicine. Accordingly, he was sent to the University of Virginia for post-graduate work in chemistry, which was then taught in that institution by one of his uncles. Thus when he began his association with the Founders, he was already possessed of the dignity of a Doctor of Medicine. One can rather readily imagine that if he made any attempt to maintain that dignity, his fraternity brothers, in a good-natured way, made the maintenance of it as difficult as possible. He shared Room 43, West Range with Founder Sclater.

After completing his post-graduate work at the University of Virginia, Howard was for two years a member of the medical faculty of Georgetown University. During this time he was given an honorary Master of Arts degree by that institution. After leaving Georgetown, young Howard was connected for a time with the medical section of the National Museum. He married Isolene Carusi and they had five children, four sons and a daughter.

For some reason, however, Howard's interest in medicine waned and in 1874, he received another degree from Georgetown University, this time the Bachelor of Laws. He then practiced law in Baltimore for about five years. During this period as an attorney, he handled western land claims, and in connection with one such case, he visited the West. From this visit, he probably saw new opportunity, and in 1881, he began the practice of law in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota.

In St. Paul, he formed law partnerships with the greatest lawyers of the state, Jude Kerr and ex-Governor Marshall. During his residence of nearly twenty years in that city, Howard was twice associated as editor of the West Publishing Company, a law book concern; during this time he published some excellent law reports. It was in the field of law then, rather than in medicine, that Robertson Howard achieved eminence.

Throughout his lifetime, Howard kept in his possession autographed photographs of his fellow co-Founders. Only a few years after the death of Taylor, Howard died on December 1, 1899, in St. Paul. The circumstances of his death were rather similar to those of Taylor's except that Howard died in his carriage instead of on the sidewalk. His body was taken to hi old home in Washington, D.C., for burial and lay for years in an unmarked grave in the Congressional cemetery.

Reprinted from The Oak: A History of Pi Kappa Alpha.

Back To History