Robertson Howard

Robertson Howard (1847–1899), was an attorney, editor for West Publishing, and founder of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

Howard was born December 11, 1847 to Flodoardo R. Howard and Lydia Maria (Robertson) Howard, in Brookeville, Maryland. His mother was of solid Quaker stock and his father was a descendant of the Howards who were of royalty, prominent for years in England in politics. The Maryland branch of the Howard family was very influential in the colonial period and remains prominent to this day. The name has been preserved in one of the best-known counties of the state and Howard Street is an important Baltimore thoroughfare.

Young Howard was educated in the old Brookeville Academy, which had been founded in 1808 by his ancestors. About the time the Civil War broke out his father moved to Washington, DC where he purchased the site now occupied by Washington's largest department store. His father's office was just across the street from Ford's Theatre where Abraham Lincoln's assassination took place on the night of April 14, 1865. Since Howard practiced the Quaker faith he probably took no active part in the Civil War on either side, though he did provide assistance to wounded or disabled soldiers during the War.

Howard entered the University of Virginia with an unusual distinction: he already held the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Georgetown University, where his father had been the founder and one of the first professors of medicine of that institution. Since young Howard had graduated at Georgetown when he was only eighteen years of age, he was considered too young to begin the practice of medicine. Accordingly, he was sent to the University of Virginia for post-graduate work in chemistry, which was then taught in that institution by one of his uncles. Thus when Howard began his association with the other founders of Pi Kappa Alpha, he already held the title of Doctor of Medicine. Howard shared Room 43, West Range at UVA with fellow founder James Benjamin Sclater Jr.

After completing his post-graduate work at the University of Virginia, Howard was for two years a member of the medical faculty of Georgetown University. During this time he was given an honorary Master of Arts degree by that institution. After leaving Georgetown, young Howard was connected for a time with the medical section of the National Museum.

For reasons unknown, Howard's interest in medicine waned and in 1874, he received another degree from Georgetown University, this time the Bachelor of Law. He then practiced law in Baltimore for about five years during which time her married his wife Isolene Maria Carusi on June 8, 1875. The couple had five children; four sons and a daughter. During this period as an attorney, he handled western land claims, and in connection with one such case, he visited the West. From this visit, he probably saw new opportunity, and in 1881, he began the practice of law in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota.

While in St. Paul, Howard formed law partnerships with two of the greatest lawyers in the state, Jude Kerr and ex-Governor William Rainey Marshall. During his residence of nearly twenty years in that city, Howard was twice associated as editor of the West Publishing Company, a law book concern; during this time he published some excellent law reports. It was in the field of law then, rather than in medicine, that Robertson Howard achieved eminence.

Throughout his lifetime, Howard kept in his possession autographed photographs of his fellow co-Founders. Only a few years after the death of Taylor, Howard died on December 1, 1899, in St. Paul. The circumstances of his death were rather similar to those of Taylor's except that Howard died in his carriage instead of on the sidewalk. His body was taken to his old home in Washington, D.C., for burial and lay for years in an unmarked grave in the Congressional Cemetery.

External links

http://www.pka.org