James R. Howeth

HELENA - James R. Howeth, 78, of Helena, an Army veteran and retired investment officer, died of natural causes Tuesday in Helena.
Visitation with the family present is 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home. His funeral is 1 p.m. Monday at the funeral home, followed by burial with military honors in Forestvale Cemetery
Jim was born in Fort Spunky, Texas, on July 10, 1932, to William and Ouida (Hackworth) Howeth. He graduated from high school in Fort Worth, and re-ceived a scholarship to play basketball at Texas Christian University, but served in the Army with the 101st Airborne Division in the Korean War.
Upon completing his service, he met Marilyn Ponath in Seattle, Wash., where they were married. After returning to Texas for a brief period of time, they moved to Missoula, Mont., where Jim graduated from the University of Montana in 1957 with a bache-lor's degree in business.
Jim and Marilyn had four sons and later divorced in 1975.
Following graduation, Jim had an extensive and remarkable career in the investment business.
Starting in 1957, he worked as a security analyst with the trust department of Norwest Bank. In 1959, Jim became a stockbroker for D.A. Davidson, and was in-strumental in building its munici-pal bond business. He also served as a branch manager and later became a principal, director and vice president of the firm.
In 1971, former Gov. Forrest Anderson tapped Jim to become the first investment officer and administrator of the Montana Board of Investments. Retiring from the state in 1988, he achieved a career dream of estab-lishing his own investment man-agement firm, Anna Corporation, naming the company after his only daughter, Anna.
Jim also served on the Carroll College Investment Committee for many years. Because of poor health, Jim retired from AnnaCo Investment Management in the fall of 2008.
He married Roberta Inez Daggett in 1975 in San Francisco, Calif., and they lived in Helena, where they had two children, Anna and Jim. They dreamed together of a retirement home at Ashley Lake near Kalispell. The home was finished after Inez passed away from cancer in 2000. Jim was really proud of this place and loved being up at Ashley Lake enjoying the "million dollar" view.
Jim was a member of the Montana Club and the Green Meadow Country Club. Through his work at AnnaCo, Jim also enjoyed sponsoring a Governor's Cup Golf Tournament team. He loved to watch football and was a proud Dallas Cowboys and TCU Horned Frogs fan (he must have been the only person in Montana with a TCU license plate cover)!
Jim was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Doyle; and his former wives, Marilyn and Inez.
Jim will be greatly missed by his family; children, Dave (Debbie) of Missoula, Philip (Joann) of Helena, Bill (Debra) of Thornton, Colo., John (Rhonda) of Loveland, Colo., Anna (Eric) Kron of Las Vegas, Nev., and Jim of Seattle, Wash.; a sister, Patti Holt of Fort Worth, Texas; a brother-in-law, Larry (Linda) Daggett of Great Falls, Mont.; and a niece, Rocky McCormick of Fort Worth, Texas. Jim had eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren who knew him as "big" grandpa.
Special and sincere thanks to the outstanding nurses and aides at the Waterford for their care and love for Jim.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to a charity of the donor's choice.
Condolences may be posted online at www.aswfuneralhome.com and/or www.gftribune.com/obituaries.