June 22, 1925 - December 16, 2013
Howard B. Pilcher Obituary
(Age 88)
Howard B. Pilcher, longtime Spokane resident, passed away December 16, 2013. He began his life in Lansing, MI, but spent most of his adult life in the city he loved best, Spokane. There he raised two children, worshipped at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, pursued a career in fiscal management, played golf and bridge, and retired to spend years in voluntary service.
Howard was born June 22, 1925, in Lansing, MI, to the Reverend Howard B. and Esther Dahl Pilcher. He next lived in Dover, ID, before his parents moved to Richfield, MN, outside Minneapolis when Howard was three. The family moved to Havre, MT, where Howard attended all four years of high school, graduating in 1942 as valedictorian.
After studying one year at Northern Montana College (Havre), Howard entered the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army during the final years of World War II. He served at Camp Lee, VA, and on Okinawa. He was discharged in April 1946 with a rank of Tech 4.
He attended Washington State University (then Washington State College) for four years and graduated in 1949 with a B.A. in General Studies with honors. While at WSU, Howard was a member of Theta Chi fraternity, Crimson Circle honorary society, and served as president of the Interfraternity Coordinating Council. Howard was hired in June 1950 by the Seattle branch of the Carnation Company Fresh Milk and Ice Cream division where he first worked as an accountant.
In 1952 Howard married another Cougar from WSU, Louise Bach, on July 26, 1952. The couple lived in Seattle through the birth of their first child, Kenneth, before moving to Spokane in 1955. A second son, Steven, was born in 1956. Howard received several promotions at Carnation which took the family back to Seattle in 1962, to Los Angeles in early 1964, and back to Spokane by the end of summer 1964. Howard resigned from his Carnation job as office manager and took employment in 1970 with Sacred Heart Medical Center from which he retired in 1989 as Director of Fiscal Services.
Howard joined Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in 1964. He sang in the choir every year, was elected a church elder, served on the church?s Session, and several times chaired the stewardship committee. He served as a precinct committeeman. In retirement Howard volunteered with the AARP TaxAide program from 1992 through 2008. He was a site coordinator at the Corbin Center from 2003. For several years he served as a citizen volunteer on the Advisory Committee to the Spokane Transit Authority in the 1990s.
Howard lived in the house he purchased with Louise in 1964 until his passing. His special interests included traveling throughout the United States and to Spain and England; bridge, which he played with couples and church groups; golf; and a lifelong interest in numbers and their use which, as he put it, ?has confounded many?. He amazed and amused his friends by memorizing their license plate numbers, their phone numbers, and the enumeration of everything from pine cones to trick-or-treaters. He was preceded in death by his brother Gordon E. of Mountain View, CA. He is survived by his wife, Louise; his sons, Kenneth and Steven; and his grandchildren, Dashiell and Mallory. A memorial service will be held Saturday, December 28, 2013, at 2:00 pm, at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Spokane. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Christ Clinic, 914 W Carlisle Ave, Spokane, WA, 99205, or Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, 1926 W Chelan Ave, Spokane, WA 99205.