John A. Howard

John Howard returned from World War II service in the First Infantry Division with two silver stars, two purple hearts and a commitment to use his career to help spread understanding of the great blessings of America’s free society which from its beginnings was inspired and shaped by the teachings of Christianity. He had previously had three years in college and had been deeply concerned by the growing political ferment of radical organizations working to destroy the American government, its economic system and its religiously- and family-centered society. He chose to prepare himself for college administration. At age 29, he became president of a small experimental college. In 1955 he was named Executive Vice Chairman of President Eisenhower’s Committee of Government Contracts overseeing its work of opening jobs to qualified minority applicants. The committee achieved substantial success during President Eisenhower’s Administration. In 1960, John was called to be president of Rockford College, which was already committed to relocating. President Kennedy had decided to provide extensive subsidies for colleges. John and the Trustees decided to use no federal funds for the new campus. One reason was the ever-expanding federal funding would make education a political captive, with mounting pressure to support whichever political candidates promised the largest additional government funding. The new campus was built with private funds. In 1976, John resigned as President of Rockford College to found and operate a think tank in order to study and make known the cultural forces destroying America’s free society. An offshoot of that think tank, The Howard Center, where John still works, writing books and lecturing, conceived and operates the World Congress of Families which conducts periodic Congresses with thirty-one pro-family organizations of many nations as partners participating in the planning. John and his wife Jan have four children and nine grandchildren.