Howard was born at Camp Pendleton, California, in 1962. His father was a career Marine so he moved regularly as a child. The family was stationed on both the east and west coast of the United States and also overseas. After his father retired from the Marine Corps, the family settled in Kansas City, Missouri, until 1978. They then moved to Neosho, Missouri, and have remained in the area since that time.
Howard graduated from Neosho High School in 1981 and then joined the Marine Corps. During his three years in the Marines, he was stationed in California and Okinawa, Japan. Howard was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1984 and moved back to Neosho. After a couple of years of farming, Howard began working with White Industrial Seismology located in Joplin. Howard’s job with the Seismology company was to monitor ground vibration and acoustic levels with seismographs during blasting projects related to construction, demolition, coal mining and quarrying.
In 1989, Howard took a job with the Joplin Police Department and remained there until his retirement. He was a patrol officer, on the Special Response Team, a Field Training Officer and a Detective during his 20-year career at the police department. Howard spent his last 13 years in the detective division. While in the detective division, he worked categories that included property theft, vehicle thefts, assaults, arsons, frauds, domestics, rapes, robberies, child abuse and homicides. During his last four years with the department, he was the primary child abuse investigator and assisted with other major cases. Howard retired from the Joplin Police Department in March of 2009 as a Detective Corporal. Howard took the part-time position of Chief of Police with Duenweg in August of 2008. After retiring from the Joplin Police Department, he started full-time at Duenweg Police Department in April of 2009.
Howard is married and has four children, two sons and twin daughters. They have lived in Webb City for nine years. His wife has worked in the field of education for 18 years. Currently she is an Assistant Superintendent for Carl Junction Schools.
