Howard I. Schonberger

March 9, 1921 — Oct. 23, 2015

Howard Ivan Schonberger was born to Anna and Edward Schonberger in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, across the river from Council Bluffs, Iowa on March 9, 1921. He came from “Huckleberry stock,” as they say in Nebraska – he was a mix of Austro-Hungarian, Romanian-Russian with a bit of Chippewa. His Grandma Kate could speak Romani and helped him win at the carnivals where the Gypsies ran the Wheel of Fortune. His mother was a teacher in a one-room school house. In those days women could not remain teaching after marriage, and so she stopped teaching when she married Edward Schonberger. Howard had one brother, Stanley, who was five years older.

Throughout his life, Howard looked up to Stanley who “taught him how to do things.” Stanley served in the Medical Battalion during World War II and retired from the U.S. Army as a chief surgeon with the rank of major in 1953. Stanley’s death in Oakland, Calif., in January 2015 cast a shadow in this last year of Howard’s life.

In Council Bluffs the family owned a general store, but when disaster struck and the store burned down, the family lost everything. The insurance company that had insured the store was a fraud, and the family never recovered any of the loss. Howard was about seven years old when the family moved in 1928 to Omaha, Neb. to begin again. Times were tough as the country was heading into the Great Depression and the Midwest was suffering a drought. They moved to the poorest part of town, and Howard went to Jackson School, where he was in the minority, being white. He was also a head taller than the other kids, all of whom wanted to “cut him down to their size.” His father taught him how to box, and after several bouts in kindergarten he “learned to respect Blacks and they, me.”

Howard had memories of Jim Crow, and considered himself an “Abe Lincoln Republican” and a staunch believer in equal opportunity. He often told the story of serving for the first time as an usher at the Omaha theater when Jimmy Hall, a star halfback on the football team, came in with his mother. Howard greeted them and began to lead them forward when a doorman quickly came over and directed them up to the balcony, saying “Kindly take the stairway to your right, please.” The shame of this moment and others led Howard to fight discrimination in high school, unions, college, the Army, country clubs, service clubs and on every newspaper he worked for. In his will, he fittingly bequeathed a scholarship with priority given to minority applicants.

Howard was seven when he got his first job, and he was never without a job the rest of his life. He used his red flyer wagon to help “old ladies” home with their groceries. “Anything I made over a dime for the week went to the family savings jar administered by my mom. The hills of Omaha were as steep as those in San Francisco, so I really earned my nickels.” He also sold magazines such as Liberty Digest and the Saturday Evening Post. These jobs didn’t pay very well, so he would go over to the house of Buddy Rogers, who was a silent movie star in the old films. Howard would try to catch a glimpse of Buddy, then draw Buddy’s picture and sell it at his mom’s bridge club for five cents. Howard was a steady and creative worker and remained employed from those early years throughout his long life. He was proud to be the oldest writing columnist in the U.S.

Howard started in the newspaper business at the ripe age of ten when he was selling newspapers on the street. One time he was listening to the crystal radio set that his dad had made for him when he heard that Will Rogers had just died in a plane crash. He raced down to the district shed where an “extra edition” would surely be runoff. He then ran down to the middle block and started yelling as loud as he could, “Extra paper! Read all about it! Will Rogers is dead!”

“The people were so stunned that Rogers, an idol in the Midwest because of his Cherokee blood and great sense of humor, could be taken away at 56. Women, and many men, were in tears, sobbing at the news. It certainly gave me an appreciation of how much people can be affected by a news story.” That day he made more money than he had in the previous four months and he committed himself to a career in the news. He worked on his high school paper and earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University.

Howard joined the Palo Alto Times after WWII in 1949, but then he was called back to service in the Korean War a year later as a recalled infantry reserve officer. He returned to the paper two years later and enjoyed a 30-year career there in the advertising department. He loved the paper for being employee-owned and having profit sharing. He believed that people who invest their lives in a company should have as much to gain from a company’s success as people who invest their money. The Palo Alto Times, which had been cited as the most successful small-town daily in the country by Business Week magazine, was bought in 1979 by the Chicago Tribune, which killed the profit sharing as soon as their six-month guarantee of “no changes” expired. The paper was defunct by 1993, two months after its 100th birthday. After retirement, Howard joined the San Juan Journal as an advertising salesman, columnist and newsman and was a lifelong defender of the crucial place and inherent value of a community newspaper.

Howard served four years in WWII and two years in the Korean War. He married Virginia Harcum on June 10, 1945 and they had a son, Howard Jr. Howard was captivated by the beauty of the San Juan Islands and, after a chance sighting of orca whales, bought property on the west side of San Juan Island where he moved with his second wife Ottley Briggs in 1979. He and Ottley were active in the arts, the Sunshine Gallery, the San Juan Yacht Club and the San Juan Golf Club. Ottley died in 1999.

In 2002, Howard married Helen Sawyer, and together they were active in the community and the arts. He was on the board of United Way of San Juan County and was a member of the American Legion, Lions Club, and was the first male member of the Soroptomists. He enjoyed the Knowledge Bowl, trivia, Scrabble, and golf.

Howard was preceded in death by his older brother Stanley; by two wives Virgina Harcum Schonberger and Ottley Briggs Schonberger; and by stepsons Gary and Mark Smith. Howard is survived by his son Howard Schonberger, Jr., his grandson Michael and granddaughter Laura; his stepdaughter Kathy Smith; and his wife, Helen Sawyer. (Much of this obituary is a version of an interview by step-grandson Milo Holston in seventh grade in 2008.)