 | MILO BARRETT HOWARD, JR. |
The following biographical sketch was compiled at the time of induction into the Academy in 1975.
Milo Barrett Howard, Jr., the Director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, was
born in Montgomery on October 21, 1933.
After growing up in Montgomery and attending the pubic schools there, he graduated from Auburn
in 1955 with an A.B. degree and a familiarity with the Archives Department that he acquired during
several summers' work. He spent the next two years as a lieutenant on active duty in the United
State Army Reserve. After his discharge, he took a Master of Arts degree at Auburn and entered the
Department of Archives and History as a full-time archivist in 1958.
In 1964, he was promoted to the post of Assistant Director, and in 1967, after serving briefly as the
acting head of the Department, became the fourth Director in the history of the Archives. Also a
member of the academic community, Mr. Howard was an instructor at the University of Alabama
in Montgomery from 1964 to 1968 and in 1968 was appointed a research lecturer at Auburn
University at Montgomery.
As the director of the Department, he was the editor of the Alabama Historical Quarterly; as a
working historian, he was himself the author of articles that have appeared in such periodicals as the
Alabama Review, the Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, the Church Historical
Magazine, and Louisiana History. In 1965, he published, with Robert Rea, The Memoire
Justificatif of the Chevalier Montaut de Monberaut as a part of the University of Alabama's
Southern Historical Publications series.
In addition, he was a leading figure in several historical, archival, and library association. A member
of the Alabama Historical Association since his junior year at Auburn, he has served the organization
as president, vice president, an treasurer. He is currently a director of the Alabama Archaeological
Society and is a member of the Alabama Academy of Science, the Alabama Library Association, the
Society of American Archivists, and the Newcomen Society.
When he was not engaged in tracking down the past through documentary evidence, he was involved in
historic preservation activities. The chairman of the Alabama Historical Commission since its
creation in 1967, he also served as chairman of the State Capitol Preservation Commission, the
secretary-treasurer of the Governor's Mansion Advisory Board, and the secretary of the Montgomery Landmarks Foundation. In addition, he was a member of the Montgomery Historical Development Commission and the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; in 1969, he served on the Alabama Sesquicentennial Commission.
A frequent speaker at gatherings throughout the state, Mr. Howard also served on the Alabama
Committee for the Humanities and Public Policy and the Humanities Advisory Board at Auburn, of
which he was the chairman. And on the Montgomery scene, he was a familiar figure
as a former director of the Rotary Club and the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given
by the Montgomery Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1967.
A member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Montgomery, he was a vestryman and a former warder.
From 1969 to 1975, he served as the historiographer of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. He is now deceased.
Updated: March 15, 2007