It’s not surprising that one of Howard’s Rotary mantras is “All In.” Howard Eddy is a District 6880 Leadership Academy graduate, District RLI graduate, District RLI facilitator, Past Disaster Relief Chair 2014–15, past District Conference Co-Chair & past Midyear Chair, Multiple PHF, charter PolioPlus Society member, past District AG, past District AG Coordinator., MS-PETS Facilitator, District DG Selection Committee member 2017–18, past District “Rotarian of the Year” 2017–18, District RLI Faculty Chair 2019–22, and District Visioning Team member.

Howard holds a bachelor’s degree in management and has completed additional coursework at the Wharton School of Business and Stanford University School of Law. He has been certified by the U.S. EPA, FEMA, and State of California in Haz-Mat and Emergency Response/Mitigation, was a Registered Environmental Assessor, and holds a CA Advanced Officer Certificate. He has been granted life member status in both the CA Haz-Mat Investigators Association and the CA Narcotic Officers Association.

Beyond Rotary, Howard has enjoyed serving and working on various professional, civic, church, and charitable boards. He has served as past board officer of the Fairhope Pirate Athletics Booster Club. He was elected to and served as managing trustee for KCERA, a large (over $5B) public retirement fund.

He started in Rotary as a member of Bakersfield East Rotary Club in District 5240, where he was a District 5240 PRLS and Master PRLS graduate. His sons, Jesse and Matt, were both involved as Interact and RYLA leaders. Matt was the charter president of the Rotaract Club of Ole Miss, in Oxford, MS, and also is a PHF. With more than 30 years in law enforcement, Howard has served in various leadership roles as well as being a certified public safety instructor/trainer for several specializations. He has been a board member and/or is a past president of several public safety–related associations. Howard enjoys boating and served as Vice-Commodore of the IYFR-Mobile Bay, Compass Rose Fleet.

Most of Howard’s club-level experience began with a 100–150-member club in District 5240 and now in a slightly smaller club in D6880. However, as an AG and MS-PETS trainer, he has also helped much smaller clubs and recognizes the challenges they face. When asked how he first got started in Rotary, he said, “I began my Rotary experience when I was invited to join Rotary in D5240 (CA) to represent the classification ‘Law Enforcement Management’ in a ± 150-member club. Almost immediately after joining, I was included on the club’s major fundraiser committee as well as our outreach committee to local elementary schools’ reading program. I was later sponsored by the club to attend PRLS (a multi-month long ‘Potential Rotary Leadership Seminar’ – similar to our RLI), and I ultimately graduated as a ‘Master PRLS.’ An interesting footnote is that D5240 PDG Wade Nomura (who has since served as the RI President’s representative) was one of our lead faculty and became a friend and mentor. My original club was also involved in helping with planning the RI convention in Los Angeles. An amazing aspect of Rotary is the local and worldwide friendships you gain and the opportunity to ‘Do Good in the World’ through Rotary.”

Howard’s parents had lived in Fairhope and he was a frequent visitor.  When he retired and moved to Alabama in 2007, he was invited by his banker to join the Rotary Club of Fairhope. He quickly became involved on the club’s major fundraiser committee and was later elected club president for 2013–14. The year following Howard’s Fairhope club presidency, he was invited by PDG Linda Mong to serve as D6880’s first Disaster Relief Chair and has served in some type of district leadership position every year since. His presidential year corresponded with the term of PDG Bob Callahan, and he chaired the Midyear and District Conferences that year, as well as Midyear the following year for PDG Michael Chambers. He has served directly or indirectly under every PDG since 2013. Howard is quick to point out that “Each of them has mentored and encouraged me in unique ways. I believe I’ve gained immensely as a person and Rotarian from the personal tutelage of our PDGs. I still have a lot to learn, but hope to make good use of their support and what they poured into me.”

Professionally, Howard began his career in college. He will tell you that first summer he worked “trucking” potatoes from the sheds to rail cars and decided that working the sheds in 110-degree summers wasn’t for him.  A couple of early professors pointed him toward a public safety career in Juvenile Probation.  After college, he became a crime scene investigator, then a Deputy Sheriff, and later moved up the ranks to a Sergeant-level Investigator. His assignments have included: joint agency (federal/state/local) task force commander; homicide, white-collar crime, and gangs & major narcotics cases as case supervisor, where his collateral assignments included serving as an aircraft FLIR operator and conducting air surveillance and wire taps. Another assignment was to I.A./Professional Standards where he served as an officer-involved critical incident response team leader directing the investigations into agencies across the more than 8,000 square miles of his office’s jurisdiction.

Upon retirement, Howard was hired to serve with the State of Alabama, which included serving with Baldwin County’s Community Corrections as its first Executive Director, and later with the State of Alabama’s 28^th Judicial District as the District’s Administrative Chief, responsible for helping coordinate office operations along with the prosecutor’s support staff. Howard can’t quite seem to fully retire, and more recently he has worked at the federal level with the D.O.J. U.S. Marshal’s Service – Southern District of Alabama and a stint as a Special Investigator with a “top secret” clearance as a U.S. State Department contractor assigned out of Miami Region, Field Investigations.

Howard’s gracious wife, Kathy works for the Mobile County Commission in IT. They are both quick to thankfully point out that their boys have good jobs and outstanding wives who are a joy to have around. They will have been married just shy of 45 years, love living on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and plan to enjoy their kids and future grandkids adjacent to the beautiful Mobile Bay and Gulf Coast region for many more years.