Jim Howard was a psychiatrist who became a JW. He was from a congregation near mine here in Vermont, and I knew him long before he was invited to become the physician at Bethel. He had a lovely wife and a terrific young teenaged daughter at the time. This was a well-educated, literature-loving family - not quite typical of the average JW, and I've often wondered what happened to them.
The last I heard, they left Bethel after a few years, concerned that it wasn't quite a normal way to bring up a highly intelligent, artistic teenage girl. I understand they moved to Scotland, but I could be wrong there.
A couple of interesting experiences that involved the Howards. I once had a district convention talk where I was supposed to have a couple of interviews, one with a husband and another with a wife and child. I knew the Howards well, and thought their experience would be a lot more interesting than most others, so I combined the two interviews into one with one family, the Howards. My wife and I even went to Bethel and spent a couple of days with the Howards in order to get the part rehearsed.
Well, the convention part went fine, or so I thought. But the Circuit Overseer who was the Convention Coordinator evidently was royally pissed off that I had not interviewed two seperate families, but had combined them into one. He never mentioned it to me at the convention (even though he rehearsed the part with me and the Howards!) but when I got back home, my CO, who was a terrific guy, asked me what in the world I'd done to upset the Convention Coordinator? He told me the guy had been really ticked off at my part and had recommended to the Society that I not have another part at a DC!
I explained to my CO what I'd done and why, and he ran interference for me. The next year I actually got two DC parts!
I don't remember the name of the CO who was the pissed off CC. A couple of things I do remember: he was a chunky, bully type, who had every brother rehearse his part in front of him during the Convention (like you want to start changing things then??), and he really had some brothers sweating it big time. I also seem to remember that he had just recently been widowed, and that he found himself re-assigned to Alaska, as it seems he was something of a notorious prick.
A few years back I posted a very long piece about a discussion I had with the CO who ran interference for me. Every year or so someone brings that post bttt. That CO is now a congregation elder in CA, and very disturbed with what he's seen happen in the WTS. It was a great insider's discussion I had with him for several hours, and what he said against the WTS really blew my mind, which is why I posted it on JWD.
Another thing that Jim Howard did was have a huge influence on how the WTS was dealing with Witnesses who had been sexually abused in their pasts (not talking about congregation pedophiles in particular, but they are included). He was at Bethel when many, many of the friends began coming forward with accounts of their childhood abuse, and he made a major change in how we dealt with them. I spent many hours with him on the phone, getting his direction on this. I'm also thinking that there may eventually have been a backlash against some of that, the WTS concerned that people were depending too much on "worldly sources" instead of WTS sources. But there were some very good articles written at the time in the Society's literature about how to deal with abuse survivors.
Jim was also a leading expert on alcohol and drug abuse. He created the alcohol and drug abuse treatment program at the Brattleboro Retreat in Brattleboro, VT prior to becoming a Witness and going to Bethel, and he was highly regarded in his field. I'm not sure if he was responsible for the change, but at one time a Witness could be disfellowshipped for attending AA meetings, or a study could be prevented from baptism if they attended AA meetings, as the WTS's official view was that AA was a false religion.
In a conversation with Jim once, he shocked me by telling me that in some congregations elders were attending AA meetings with congregation members who were alcoholic. I'm not sure if the WTS has again hardened their view since then, but essentially Jim was letting me know that the Society had - very quietly, as usual - changed their stance on AA at the time.
Thought you might find the above interesting, and if anyone knows how the Howards are doing, I'd be interested in hearing.
S4