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Professor Ezra L. Howell

Emeritus Legacy

Ezra Howell

Professor Emeritus of Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Agricultural Mechanization

Biographical

Ezra L. “Zeke” Howell, professor emeritus, died in March 2002 leaving a legacy of teaching and community involvement that spanned through most of the 20th century. He was born in 1916 in Mocksville, NC, graduated from Farmington High School, Edwards Military Institute, and NC State University with a B.S. and Masters Degree in Agricultural Education. Howell was a veteran of World War II, after which he started teaching in the department in 1947. He advanced to assistant professor, associate professor and retired as a full professor in 1982. He continued to teach part-time until 1990. Howell was selected to receive an “Outstanding Teacher Award” and an honorary State Farmer’s Degree; he was selected as an honorary member of the Agricultural Institute Club, Future Farmers of America, and Alpha Zeta.

Throughout his time, Howell saw Agricultural Engineering grow and develop. He moved his teaching efforts on campus from one wooden building to another. He moved as often as it took to establish Weaver Labs as a brick building on Western Blvd. and lived through each of Weaver’s structural additions. He taught and participated in agricultural engineering, as the department grew rich with people who dedicated themselves to the agricultural community.

Howell, in teamwork with George Blum, was instrumental in developing shop programs with a hands-on-approach for improving students’ course work. Howell’s area of interest was in the mechanization of tobacco and he worked on mechanical tobacco harvesters in 1976 when there were only about 2,500 such harvesters in North Carolina. He worked to perfect the abilities of the harvester and the mechanization of handling systems.

Always a helpful participant, he set up the yearly Antique Farm Machinery Exhibit at the NC State Fair until 1990. Most importantly, he will be forever remembered as being among an elite group of early departmental educators to see agricultural engineering through most of the 20th century.