Leland R. Howe

Leland R. Howe, formerly of Wilmington and Tewksbury, MA, and more recently of Greenville and Milford NH, died on April 8, 2009, just weeks shy of his 88th birthday. Leland (Lee) was a WWII veteran, having served in the US Coast Guard, aboard the USS Centaurus AKA-17, in the South Pacific. Lee was an avid camper, and loved canoeing, music, traveling. He was also a kind and loving, husband, father, and grandfather. His greatest passion was photography. A self proclaimed �shutter bug�, he received his first camera at age 11, and never stopped snapping shots from that time on. He worked as a professional photographer, supplying event photos to area newspapers, and as a wedding photographer in the early 60�s. Later, Lee opened a camera repair shop in Boston Ma., and repaired and maintained photographic equipment for many Boston area studios. He also worked on cameras for the legendary underwater photographer, Jaques Cousteau, and cameras used in the filming of The Great Brinx Robbery, which was filmed in Boston. Lee loved New England, and there wasn�t a landmark, that he didn�t capture on film. When he retired in the early 80�s, he fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams; he and his wife Ruth, traveled out west so that he could photograph �this great country of ours�. His photos of National Parks, including Yosemite and Yellowstone, are breathtakingly beautiful. In passing, Lee joins his parents, Elmore C. Howe, and Josephine S. (Coolidge-Temple) Howe, and one brother, Chester C. Howe, all of Wilmington, MA. Lee leaves behind his loving wife of 67 years, Ruth G. (Dubord) Howe; his three daughters and their husbands, Judith A. Farinha and husband Pete of Nashua, NH, Paulette M. Braffitt and her husband Peter of Milford, NH, and Brenda S. Hammar and her husband Alrick P. Jr. of Pelham, NH. He also leaves ten grandchildren, twenty great grandchildren, and seven great-great grandchildren, many nieces, nephews and cousins. A memorial service celebrating his life will be held at 11:00 o�clock on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009, at the United Methodist Church of Milford, 327 North River Road, Milford, NH. Flowers should be sent directly to the church. The family respectfully requests that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made in his memory to The American Heart Association, 2 Wall Street, Manchester NH 03101 or The Alzheimer�s Foundation, 322 8th St. seventh floor, NY, N.Y. 10001. Leland will be sadly missed, but never forgotten.