Robert S. Howland

July 20, 1926 - January 29, 2019 Robert (Bob) St. John Howland would have been 93 this Saturday, July 20th on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Landing on the Moon. This would have been a fitting tribute to a man who spent a lifetime of building things. Born in Windsor, Canada, his family moved to Southern California when he was 5 where he lived the rest of his life. Although Bob never received an engineering degree, he was a natural engineer, mechanic, entrepreneur and inventor. During World War II Bob was a crew chief for the 418th Night Fighter Squadron of P-61's in Okinawa. After discharge he spent the next seventy plus years in the contract precision machining industry. A natural leader he was the vice president of manufacturing for a large aerospace contract machining company eventually owning his own "machine shop" for over 30 years. During that time he worked on rocket engines, nuclear reactors, can forming machines, oilfield equipment and his true passion, medical devices which he pursued to the end. His surviving family continue to miss him.