Horace Howard Powell

Horace “Howard” Powell 91 of Titusville died January 11, 2020. Howard is proceeded in death by his father Homer, mother Freeda, wife Pamela, brother Bill, sister Ann and son in law Joey Browning.

He is survived by his sons Howie(Sanna) Greg, daughter Tere. Grandfather to Natasha (Jon), Leslie (Mark), Crystal (Damien), Claire (Darren). Known as Big daddy to his great grandchildren Hunter, Holden, Kallen, Presten, Corden, Ben, Grant, Pearl, Maverick, Troy, Olive and Hazel.

Howard had a very strong work ethic early in life. He went to work at age 11 for his fathers’ electrical company. He was very interested in flying. So, at a young age he started working in the airplane hangars sweeping the floors to earn money for flying lessons. He earned enough money at age 16 and became a licensed pilot.

He served in the Navy during WW2. After serving in the Navy at Moffitt Field California he moved back to his birth state of Alabama. While back in Alabama he started teaching dance lessons at the Arthur Murry dance studio. This is where he met his first wife and still dear friend Lu Herman. She was also a teacher. He went on to dance with Ginger Rogers in her dance shows.

Later he started attending night school to further his education in Engineering. He then moved to California to work for Douglas Aircraft Company. Continuing his education in Aerospace Engineering landed him a job for Martin Company. There he worked on designing the Titan Missile program in the early 60’s. Later in the middle 60’s Martin assigned him to train the first Air Force crews to man the Titan missile Silo’s throughout the US. With his reputation growing in the Aerospace industry the IBM corporation sought him out to become part of the Saturn program. At that time, he was transferred to Titusville. This is where he became the IBM project manager for the Gemini and Apollo programs. During his tenure at Cape Canaveral he became friends with many astronauts and Wernher von Braun the father of the Saturn program. Years later he was hired by Teledyne which brought him back to California. This is where he met his second wife Pamela. While living there he rose to the top as Vice President of Teledyne’s Laser Warfare Division until retirement.

After retirement he moved to Texas and focused on the bible. He had many Bible studies with astronaut Charlie Duke. He was very excited about this. Charlie was credited for having more walks on the moon than any other astronaut. Over the years he also enjoyed playing tennis and golf.

Over the last few months of his life he lived at Addington Place Assisted living and enjoyed his life going on outing with his friend and dancing with all the lovely ladies.

 Howard will always be remembered for his sweet smile, crystal blue eyes, humor and his dancing skills.

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