Howell, F. Scott

Jesuit Father F. Scott Howell died on July 18, 2012, in Japan. Fr. Howell was a Jesuit for 52 years and a priest for 35 years.

The son of Dorothy M. Craig and Frank S. Howell of Washington, D.C., he was born April 26, 1942. Following graduation from the Priory School, a Benedictine led school in Washington, D.C., he entered the Society of Jesus in 1959. Following studies at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., he earned his B.A. in physics at Fordham University while studying at Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, New York. He then earned his doctorate in physics at the Catholic University of America, in 1972. He next went to Kamakurashi, Japan, studies of the Japanese language from 1972 to 1974 at Nihon Kenkyu Center.

Fr. Howell was ordained a priest at Loyola College (now University Maryland) on June 4, 1977. Originally a Maryland Province Jesuit, Fr. Howell transcribed to Japan in 1982.

Fr. Howell has served in the Japan Province since 1972, for nearly all that time at Sophia University. He was professor of ethics at Sophia’s Kamakurashi campus from 1977 to 1979 and then spent another two years there as professor of chemistry. In addition to his work as a professor, Fr. Howell took on assignments to assist his fellow Jesuits and students. For a year (1982-1983) he served as minister of the Jesuit house in Tokyo—where he was living at the time of his death—before moving to Sophia University’s Tokyo campus. He coordinated wedding ceremonies for Sophia graduates who wanted to be married in the students’ Kulturheim chapel from 1985 to 1999 and was coordinator of student exchanges from 1993 to 1999.

Most recently, he was named in 2009 president of the Junior College campus in Hadano, about 70 miles from Tokyo while serving as professor of physics at Sophia University.