Donald J. Howe

Don Howe passed away on December 7 at the Bentley Village Care center where he received devoted care for four years from nurses, CMAs, and staff. As his prodigious intelligence and memory began to fail as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s. He was born December 1, 1931, to Robert T. and Lillian M. Howe in Chicago where he attended St. George High School and DePaul University for his bachelor’s degree in commerce and a Law Degree. Upon graduating from law school, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent his time providing legal representation to the patients in the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Returning to Chicago, he started a job with Chicago Commercial Corporation. He soon moved to Continental Bank where he would spend the rest of his career. He had a background in bankruptcy law and was assigned to start the “workout” function of the bank, charged with recapturing money for the bank when large commercial loans failed. He hired additional attorneys and staff to expand this section of the legal department, until Continental became the first bank “too big to fail” and was taken over by the FDIC in 1984. His workout division grew in prominence during the crisis as they tried to recover some of the bad loans purchased from Penn Square Bank and those made by the commercial lending department at Continental. Don and his wife, Judy both received “early-outs” from their companies in 1988. In 1990 they left their beloved Chicago, having found Naples. Lovers of travel they spent twelve years seeing virtually all of the United States with three major driving trips, and traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Throughout his life he volunteered at his Catholic parish as a Lector, Eucharistic Minister and in other capacities, first in Chicago and then Naples, as well as other activities such as Guardian ad Litum and the Immokalee Thanksgiving dinner. He is survived by his wife Judy: his children: Tim (Cincinnati, Ohio), B.A. (Urabana, IL), and Laura (Richard) DeBell (San Diego), and two grandchildren, Kellen and Kathryn. He was preceded in death by his brother Bob. A Funeral Mass will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, December 16, 2017 at St. John the Evangelist Church, followed by burial in the Memorial Garden. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Support Network, 660 Tamiami Trail N, #21 Naples, FL (34102) or Vitas Hospice, 4980 Tamiami Trail N, Suite 102 Naples, FL (34103) Online condolences may be left by visiting www.ShikanyFuneralHome.com Arrangements are being handled by Shikany’s Bonita Funeral Home.

Donald J. Howe

December 1, 1931 - December 7, 2017