Irma Elizabeth Howard 1924 – 2022 BRUNSWICK – Irma Elizabeth Howard, 97, passed quietly on Feb. 3, 2022, in Brunswick. Born in Needham, Mass., on May 7, 1924, she was the daughter of late Theodore and Beulah (Atkinson) Parker. A 1942 graduate of Needham High School, she excelled in several athletic activities, captained the girls’ field hockey team and earned all-state honors in that sport. During World War II, Irma was a volunteer at Boston’s Faulkner’s Hospital for three years. She married Edward U. Howard in 1948 and they moved to coastal Maine to begin their life together. During the Korean War, she and her family lived at Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas, returning to Massachusetts in 1954. Home was in Natick, Mass. from 1954 to 1963, Dartmouth, Mass. from 1963 to 1988, and Brunswick from 1988 to 2022. She worked as bookkeeper for small businesses and regional church organizations. An avid Red Sox, Bruins and Patriots fan, she took great pleasure in those teams’ recent successes. She was active in church life, including First Parish Church in Brunswick serving on various committees and as a cheerful Sunday morning greeter. Continuing her tradition of hospital volunteering, Irma and Ed were familiar faces at Mid-Coast Hospital for many years. She enjoyed the outdoors, camping with her husband and sons in the ’60s and serving with Ed as campground hosts for the USDA Forest Service in the Aspen, Colo. area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Irma had a theatrical side – playing roles and directing plays performed by the Smith Mills Players in Dartmouth, Mass. She enjoyed playing cards and dominos (by her rules) with family and friends, was a voracious reader and book club member in her Willow Grove neighborhood and later at Coastal Landing, and a determined jigsaw puzzle solver. Irma was predeceased by her husband, Ed; and her sisters Thelma Chalue and Winifred Trundley. She is survived by two sons and their spouses, Ted and Lynne Howard of Durham, N.H., and John and Lisa Howard of Snowmass, Colo. Above all, she was a beloved mother and grandmother who enjoyed visiting with and caring for her grandchildren. Now grown, the grandchildren, their spouses, and great-grandchildren are Scott and Emily Howard with Miles and Wesley (Minnesota), Christine and Forbes Barber with Sawyer and Austin (Massachusetts), Alissa Howard (Massachusetts), Katherine Howard (Colorado), and Rebecca Howard (New York). A favorite aunt of many, Irma took a keen interest in her many nephews, nieces, their children and grandchildren, as well as extended family and friends across the country. A memorial service is planned for the late spring.

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