Paul Thomas Howard died Nov. 30, after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old.
Paul was a builder, author, sailor, adventurer, thinker, leader, endlessly patient teacher, fixer of anything, and a beloved husband, father, brother and grandfather.
He was born April 17, 1944, on a farm in Dorr, to John and Eleanor Howard. He worked from a young age, caring for cows, growing and selling Christmas trees, and on the sawmill.
Paul attended Western Michigan University 1964-66, and served in the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Togo 1966-1968, building roads, bridges and aquaculture farms.
Back at WMU in 1969-1972, he completed a degree in social work and organized an 8,000-person rally in Kalamazoo and ten buses to the 1969 Washington, DC, National Moratorium March to end the Vietnam War.
Paul moved to Toronto in 1972. He met his life partner, Fiona McCall in a sailing club for people who did not own a boat on a traditional Hong Kong junk in 1973.
He wrote “Make Your Own Furniture” and in 1975, they traveled to England and purchased the aging gaff cutter Seagull, sailing from England through France to the Mediterranean.They later purchased Lady Fiona, a 21-foot junk rigged fiberglass boat, traveling down the River Danube through Germany, Romania and Bulgaria to Istanbul and Greece.
Fiona became pregnant in Greece and they boarded cargo ship from Piraeus to Jacksonville, FL. They sailed north to Toronto, making it back in 1977, with three weeks to spare.
Paul cared for baby, Penny, and then Peter, while Fiona worked full-time, wrote “Easy-to-make Wooden Furniture for Children” (1981), and fit out the bare steel hull of a 29-foot junk rigged sail boat, Lorcha, for family living.
Paul and Fiona then left Toronto on Lorcha with Penny (6) and Peter (4). They circumnavigated the world via the Azores, Brazil, Panama, Pitcairn, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Australia and South Africa, returning to Toronto in 1988. They used only a sextant and short-range VHF for navigation and communication for the first two years.
Paul and Fiona co-authored “All in the Same Boat” (1988) and “Still in the Same Boat” (1990) about this journey, had articles published in the Toronto Star, Canadian Yachting, Cruising World, TV spots on CFTO, and a TV documentary “All in the Same Boat: A Sea of Dreams.”
Paul and Fiona completed two more ocean voyages on catamaran Carpe Diem. Between 2001 and 2005, they sailed to Labrador, around the north end of Iceland to the Faroe Islands, and south through Scotland to Brazil and Argentina, rounding Cape Horn and spending time around Ushuaia, the Beagle Channel, and southern Chile. They sailed from Toronto to Alaska and Haida Gwaii via Panama from 2012-2015.
When US soldiers and conscientious objectors started seeking refuge in Canada from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Paul joined the War Resisters Support Campaign, providing accommodation, finding them work and taking them sailing.
While in their 70s, Paul and Fiona traded the ocean-going Carpe Diem for the racier catamaran Rain, and sailed the new boat from Florida to Toronto in 2017. Paul raced Rain at the Toronto Multihull Cruising Club, and usually won.
Paul was elected commodore of the TMCC in 2016, having been an active member since 1999. In 2020, he was elected commodore of the Outer Harbour Sailing Federation, a group of eight cooperative watersport clubs with almost 2,000 members.
Paul helped found Friends of Cherry Beach and Outer Harbour in 2021, to advocate to government on behalf of local sailors, kayakers and windsurfers. His nautical knowledge was instrumental in fostering better understanding among these groups.
Paul held many jobs, including farm hand, head sawyer at the family sawmill, night janitor, social worker, and writer on topics ranging from sailing to DIY to being a full-time father. He worked as a yacht broker, in a marine supply store, and as production manager for the Cape Horn boat-building company.
Paul was the third of six children, including Mary Ellen Weber, Veronica “Riky” Drenovsky, and Mark Howard, with Peter and Ted Howard already having passed away. He leaves behind his wife of 51 years, Fiona McCall; children, Penny McCall Howard (Warren Smith) and Peter Howard (Laura Burke); grandchildren, Ivy, Felix, Simon and Benji; and nieces and nephews, including Rachel, Rebecca, Mike, Tim, Tom, Kelly, and Sam; plus 17 more on Fiona’s side.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Outer Harbour Sailing Camp, via www.gofundme.com/f/9xdnb-paul-howard.
Paul’s funeral, will be broadcast online Saturday, Dec. 14, at 10:30 for an 11 a.m., service, Cardinal Funeral Home, 366 Bathurst St., Toronto. The online broadcast via www.cardinalfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/mr-paul-howard/.
