Linfielder John Howey, 67, died of a heart attack May 20, 2015, at home in Maupin (Wasco County), Ore.
His service will be held 1:30 p.m., Father's Day Sunday, June 21, 2015, in the South Wasco County Union High School gym in Maupin.
Following the service a dessert potluck will be held in the school cafeteria.
Survivors include his widow, Gwen. They had no children.
John Henry Howey was born in September 1947. From Hawaii, he was a 1965 graduate of Radford High School in Honolulu.
A member of Linfield Class of 1969 (bachelor of science degree), John also earned a M.Ed. (master of education degree) from Linfield. In addition to playing tackle (lettered 1966, 1967 and 1968) for the Linfield football Wildcats, he served as a Linfield assistant football coach in the 1969 season. He played football for Linfield head coaches Paul Durham and Ad Rutschman and served on Rutschman's coaching staff.
The photo with this posting shows John (#74) as a member of the 1968 Linfield football team.
John was part of a Linfield football milestone. On the evening of Sept. 23, 1967, he was back in Hawaii as starting defensive left tackle playing for Linfield in Honolulu Stadium. The Wildcats upset highly favored University of Hawaii, 15-13, before a crowd of 20,000, the largest crowd ever to see a Linfield game.
John spent this entire teaching (health and physical education)/coaching career in Maupin. He started at the school on Aug. 3, 1970, when it was called Wasco County Union High School. In June 2003, he retired from the school with its current South Wasco County name.
In his more than 32 years at Maupin, John coached high school football, cross-country, boys' basketball and girls' and boys' track & field. He was the 2002 1A Oregon high school boys' coach of the year in track & field after his South Wasco County Union High boys state 1A championship the same year.
John's 1996 South Wasco Union High boys' basketball team finished second in state and third in 1998. His 1979 girls' cross-country team was second in state and his 1978 and 1980 teams in the same sport finished third in state.
Following retirement, he stayed involved with South Wasco County High School. He often was a substitute teacher at the school and frequently assisted a p.e. teacher with golf, helping teach students the sport at the school and the local golf course. The past few years he was the school’s assistant girls’ basketball coach.
He also helped with track & field. Recently, John worked with Ellis Rager, South Wasco County High shot put athlete. "I wanted to win state for Howey because he was the only one who got me this far," Rager, a junior, told The Dalles Chronicle. And, indeed, on May 21, 2015, Rager won the state 1A boys' shot put title during the State Championship meet at UO's Hayward Field in Eugene.
