Perry Howard

Landscape architecture professor and landscape architect Perry Howard was born in Morganza, Louisiana on July 11, 1952 to Ruby and Grover Howard. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1970. Howard graduated from Louisiana State University with his B.L.A. degree in landscape architecture in 1975. He then graduated from Harvard University with his M.L.A. degree in landscape architecture.

In 1983, Howard was hired at the Edward D. Stone, Jr. and Associates architectural firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he would become vice president. He was then hired by North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina as program coordinator and associate professor for the landscape architecture program in 1989. During his time at North Carolina A&T, Howard has secured research and architecture grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for $75,000 and $200,000, respectively. Howard also helped to secure the initial accreditation for North Carolina A&T’s landscape architecture program. He has won numerous academic awards and appointments in the field of landscape architecture. Howard was appointed to the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects by former governor Jim Hunt. He has also served as a keynote speaker for an international landscape architecture conference in Beijing, China and jury chair for a design competition in Shenzhen, China.

Howard received the Teacher of the Year Award from North Carolina A&T in 2003 and was named Harvard Graduate School of Design's Top 100 Distinguished Alumni in 2000. He was also elected secretary to the Council of Fellows for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2003 and received the President's Award of the ASLA North Carolina Chapter in 1998. Howard was also elected president of the ASLA in 2008. He has served on numerous architectural projects, including site improvements at the Miami International Airport, a revitalization project of the West Palm Beach downtown district, resort development in St Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands) and facility additions to sites in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, South America and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Howard and his wife, Bobby Jean, have three adult children, Perry Howard, Jr., Sheri C. Howard and Justin P. Howard.

Perry Howard was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 23, 2012.