OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 226, 21 June 1944, Page 6

OBITUARY

Mr. Julian B. Foster FORMER U.S. TRADE COMMISSIONER

A radio message received by the American Legation in Wellington from Washington, dated June 19. reports that the State Department regrets to announce that Mr. Julian B. Foster, a Foreign Service Officer, died at Bethesda Naval Hospital, a suburb of Washington. D.C.. on June 17.

Mr. Foster was Trade Commissioner at Wellington from 1927 to 1933, and before that in Australia, and after that in Singapore. From 1937 to 1941, he was Commercial Attache at Copenhagen. For about the past two years he had been on duty in the State Department in Washington. detailed to the Maritime Commission. Mr. Foster was born in Colorado in 1897, and attended Georgetown, Columbia and New York Universities. He was engaged in newsipaper work for three years and in different Government departments before entering the Department of Commerce in 1923.

He is survived by his wife, the former Miss Henrietta Lecki'e, of Wellington, and three children. Mr. J. H. Howell The death occurred yesterday morning of Mr. John Henry Howell, a former Director of the Wellington Technical College, and an outstanding figure in education in the Dominion. Mr. Howell, who was 74 years of age, had been in illhealth for a little time past. Born in Gloucestershire, England, he was educated at Caterham School, at the universities of Aberystwyth (Wales), London, Strassburg (Germany), and Zurich (Switzerland). After gaining his B.A. and B.Sc. degrees he became one of the senior masters at the Strand School, King’s College, London, where he remained from, 1894 till 1899. He was then offered the post of science master at the Auckland Grammar School, and took up his duties there in 1901. Five years later he was appointed director of Christchurch Technical College, where he remained for 13 years, and .then took up similar duties at the Wellington Technical College in 1919, in succession to the late Mr. W. S. La Trobe (who had left to take up a Government appointment). Mr. Howell remained director till his retirement, in 1931, since when he had resided quietly in Wellington, yet never ceasing to interest himself in a variety of good causes.

Mr. Howell was granted leave of absence while in Christchurch to study educational systems abroad. He spent three months in the United States and Canada, four months in Great Britain and Ireland, and a few weeks in Sydney and Melbourne. As the result of that tour he was able to foster advanced ideas in teachnical education, having paid particular attention to the system in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other large centres of the United States. At the Wellington Technical College he was greatly loved and respected by members of his staff, and the thousands of students who went through his hands.

When the news of his death was received yesterday arrangements were made at once by the college staff to hold a memorial service in the Assembly Hall. It was conducted by Mr. Norman Byrne, in the unavoidable absence of the director, Mr. Ridling, before dismissing the school for the day. In the course of his feeling appreciation, Mr. Byrne recalled that Mr. Howell was a Quaker, who throughout a long life he had never failed to put into practice the high ideals and principles which are the foundation of the beliefs held by that sect, and stressed the influence of this great and good man on the college and the army of students who had passed through it. Mr. Howell was for some years a member of the Victoria College Council. In that capacity he was associated with the reorganisation of the Sarah Ann Rhodes scholarship, and also played a part in the designing of Weir House, the Victoria College hostel. Mr. R. M. Rickard The death has occurred at Napier after a long illness of Mr. Reginald Malcolm Rickard, aged 50 years, well known in Napier business circles. Born in Nelson, he was educated in Wellington, and joined the staff of the "Wellington City Council, and subsequently Hope Gibbons and the Colonial Motor Company. He served for three years in the last -war, and in 1924 married Miss Jean Adams Porter, sister of Cliff Porter, the All Black footballer. Before going to Napier, Mr. Rickard served on the Hawera Borough Council. For the last eight years he had been manager of Anderson and Hansen, Ltd. He was chairman of the Northern Hawke’s Bay branch of the New Zealand Motor Trade. He was a prominent member of the Rotary Club in Napier, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Waiohiki Golf Club. He was a manager of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, and was also a member of the Napier Club. At the beginning of this war he served -with the 2nd Hawke’s Bay Regiment in the National Military Reserve. He took an active part in both craft and Rose-Croix Freemasonry. Beside his wife, he leaves a son. Donald, who is a medical student, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, both of school age. Mr. J. Y. Douglas The death occurred suddenly yesterday afternoon, states a Dominion Special Service message from Masterton, of Mr. John Young Douglas.'manager of the municipal gas undertaking in Masterton. Mr. Douglas, who was born in Auckland 55 years ago, took up residence with his parents in Dunedin when he was about 11 years of age, and later served his time as an engineer at Port Chalmers. He was an engineer at the Dunedin gas works, and in 1937 was appointed manager of the Masterton gas works. Mr. Douglas was a director of the Y.M.C.A.. an officebearer in the Knox Church, a member of the Rotary Club, the St. Andrew Society. the Misterton Bowling Club, and Masterton Masonic Lodge No. 238. Mr. Douglas had a fine tenor voice and assisted any worthy cause. He is survived by his widow, one son, lan Douglas, R.N.Z.A.F., and by two daughters. Misses IT. and J. Dougins.

Pleading guilty to three charges of indecent exposure, Ernest Maxwell O’Sullivan, lorry-driver, aged 29, was sentenced in the Magistrates' Court, Wellington, yesterday, to one month’s hard labour.