Architect John Henry Howe was born in Evanston, Illinois on May 17, 1913, the son of Edith
Hannah Herbert and Clarence Williams Howe. After graduating from local public schools, in
1932 Howe became one of the twenty charter apprentices of the Taliesin Fellowship. During
World War II, Howe refused to respond to his draft notice, claiming conscientious objector
status, and was imprisoned as a result. After the war Howe returned to Taliesin and remained
associated with Wright until Wright's death in 1959. During most of this period Howe served
as Wright's chief draftsman and senior apprentice, and he worked on drawings for such famous
buildings as the S.C. Johnson Administration Building and Research Tower, Florida Southern
College, the Unitarian Meeting House, the Guggenheim Museum, Annunciation Greek Orthodox
Church, and the Marin County Civic Center.
From Wright's death in 1959 until 1964 Howe remained at Taliesin as one of the Taliesin
Associated Architects, designing over thirty houses and buildings in various parts of the
United States. In 1964 he became associated with Aaron Green, the San Francisco
representative of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. In 1967 Howe opened his own practice in
Minneapolis. In his independent work Howe continued to rely upon the principles of organic
architecture learned from Wright. In addition to new commissions, his practice included
additions and alterations to the Burris, Clarke, Hanna, Keland, and Kinney houses and other
Wright designs. In 1966 Howe lectured about Wright in Japan, returning in 1975 as a visiting
professor of architecture at Nihon University. Howe retired from active practice in 1992.
After retiring, Howe moved to California and died in Novato, California on September 21,
1997.
