shetuck
What do you need water for, Sunshine?
Lantern: Former Lantern editor dies in crash
Former Lantern editor dies in crash
By: Michael Paull
Posted: 3/24/08
Don Howard, 29, was able to achieve his life-long ambition of becoming a broadcast sports journalist within months of his graduation from Ohio State.
Since he was hired seven months ago as a sports reporter and videographer for WLIO NBC in Lima, his mother, Mary DesCombes, said "he was living his dream."
His father, also named Don Howard, described the former Lantern reporter and editor as "the ultimate Buckeyes fan."
DesCombes said his love of the Buckeyes was only eclipsed by his love of the Cincinnati Reds.
"He loved sports and always wanted to do broadcast sports journalism," said his father.
Howard died Thursday, March 20, at Riverside Hospital at about 11 p.m. after being involved in an automobile accident.
His father said Don's death cut short a promising career. A videographer who helped him produce his demo tape once described him to his father as one out of the hundreds of aspiring broadcast journalists he'd worked with who was "a natural."
Other people who had worked with him agreed.
"You don't want to see that happen to anyone, but you knew that Don was going to make a difference," said Kevin Bruffy, who was The Lantern's sports editor when Howard was the campus editor during the summer of 2006.
"The journalism community and Ohio State lost a good person last Thursday night," said Ryan Merrill, former Lantern editor. "He was an avid sports fan and often wrote articles for the sports section while never letting his editor responsibilities slip."
"He was destined for greatness," said his father, "and he would have been known on the national scene."
cont'd...
