Howard was the most exasperating, opinionated, grouchy and caring jumper I ever knew. One minute he'd be bitching about jumpers, and then he'd make a comment that showed that he really knew and cared for a lot of us much better than he let on.
One of my favorite jumps with Howard was at Pepperell, MA where we did a 3 Cessna 12 way for Tim Cronk's 1,000th jump. Howard kept telling me that he wished there were some more people around so he wouldn't have to jump with us, and that we'd never complete the 12-way star. Despite having some problems getting all three Cessnas onto a decent formation, we made the 12-way (but not the second point, as I recall) and Howard was whooping as much as the rest of us when we landed.
Then he tried to get beer out of me, betting that I'd probably never been on a successful 3 Cessna jump before.
BSBD HW
Don Sluter