Obituaries

Rev. Dr.  Billy Shaw “Wool” Howell, Jr., age 85, of The Pines of Davidson died Sunday, September 4, 2016.

A memorial service will be held 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at Davidson College Presbyterian Church where he was a member. A reception will follow at the Congregation House.

Wool was born on December 15, 1930 and was the son of the late Billy Shaw Howell, Sr. and Mary Brevard Alexander Howell.  He grew up in Charlotte, spent his high school years at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, later attended NC State, then joined the United States Navy during the Korean Crisis.  He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1955 and also graduated from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. in 1958.  In 1978 he received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from McCormick Seminary in Chicago and later his Clinical Training in Counseling in Southern California.

While a student at Union Theological Seminary, he married Bobbye Hubbard on August 25, 1956.  Wool was ordained into the ministry at the Olivia and Barbeque Presbyterian Churches in N.C. and served the First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, LA, First Union Presbyterian Church in Luling, LA and Derita Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.  While there, he chaired the Refugee Resettlement Committee and the New Church Development Committee, helping start seven new congregations in the Charlotte Presbytery. He served on the St. Andrews Presbyterian College Board, the Samaritan Counseling Center Board and Barium Springs Home for Children Board.  He and Bobbye participated in travel seminars to Eastern Orthodox and Middle Eastern Churches, China, Japan and Central American churches.

Wool found great joy in reading, singing in choirs, writing and water sports, especially sailing, swimming, canoeing and rafting.

He is survived by his wife Bobbye Hubbard Howell; two sons, Syd Howell (Dee) and John Mark Howell (Robin); two daughters, Sally Howell (Andrew Shryock ), and Mary Robertson Howell; two grandchildren, John Mark Howell, II (Lauren), and Eleanor Grace Howell-Shryock.

Memorials may be made to Davidson College Presbyterian Church, PO Box 337, Davidson, NC 28036 or to Barium Springs Home for Children, PO Box 1, Barium Springs, NC 28010-998.