Career
Howard was a major player in the development of consumer satellite television in the United States of America. In 1976 he demonstrated the possibility of receiving of television signal from a communication satellite direct to the home of an ordinary householder, using a home-made satellite dish (actually a converted military surplus radar dish) and a self-designed and built analog satellite receiver. He co-founded San Jose, California-based Chaparral Communications. He was born in Peoria, Illinois.
Howard was a professor emeritus electrical engineering at Stanford University, and his career there spanned more than 50 years.