Howard describes himself as old enough to remember the Beatles playing backup to Terry Lightfoot and his orchestra at a Fresher’s Ball at Liverpool University, where he studied Physics.

After graduating, Howard taught Physics, with VSO, at a school in a town called Kuantan on the beautiful East coast of Malaya. With two other volunteers he bought a Landrover to return overland to the UK. He spent 9 months on the journey travelling through, then much safer, counties like Afghanistan and Iran.

After getting home, Howard did a PhD at Penn State in America, where he managed to do a lot of climbing including Mount McKinley in Alaska. He moved to Glasgow to work with the MRC in the very stimulating Virology Unit until he retired. During that period Howard took two sabbaticals, one at UCLA and the other at the University of Bergen.

In Glasgow, he enjoyed more climbing and sailing and was fortunate to spend about 30 summers cruising on the West coast of Scotland.