Finding Oregon a more pleasant place to live than the coulees of Douglas County, Washington, the Howells bought a home at Troutdale. Paul was the middle child of a family of eleven. He often wandered alone through the bottom lands of the Columbia to explore the ponds for frogs and catfish. His adventures were the inspiration for some of the newspaper articles written by Ben Hur Lampman, Paul's not infrequent fishing companion.
While attending Jefferson High School in Portland, Paul was a member of the Glee Club. Intrigued by the stories his brother, Quincy, told of college life, Paul Joined him at the University of Oregon from 1930 to 1932 and majored in Geology. The depression, a broken leg, and love interrupted his education. Paul and Margaret Reynolds were married December 26, 1936.
Paul worked for the Oregon Highway Department. He hiked five and six days a week as a surveyor; on Sundays with his wife, he would explore the hills as a geologist. Moves became frequent and the geologic history of the country became more and more interesting. While living and working out of Klamath Falls, Paul became a member of the Geological Society of the Oregon Country in 1938.
In September 1940, Paul enrolled at the University of Washington. There he studied under J. Hoover Macken, one of his favorite instructors. While there he became an active member of the Amenite Club. A month before the graduation ceremonies where he was to receive his Bachelor of Science degree in June of 1942, he joined the Army. Within a week the 333rd Engineer's Regiment was in Louisiana. At Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, he was graduated from OCS in December 1943.
His son, Vincent Ernest, was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on May 6, 1944. Paul received the message of his birth minutes later at Camp Shelby and completely lost his dignity as an officer.
Celia Louise arrived November 8, 1945 while Paul was in Poland. It was twenty days before Paul received that message. He had rejoined the 333rd Engineer regiment in Europe as a First Lieutenant. Arriving home in Eugene, April 1st, 1946, he started the next week on his first job as a geologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"Little Paul," Paulette Carol, was born in Portland, June 30, 1948. She learned to walk a year later in Lowell where her father was project geologist for the Lookout Point and Dexter Dams.
In the summer of 1952, the Howell family moved to Arizona. Aided by a student fellowship, Paul worked for two summers at the University of Arizona in Tucson of the Navajo-Hopi Indian Reservation doing a Mineral Survey and collecting data for his dissertation: "The Cenozoic Geology of the Chetoh Country, Arizona and New Mexico."
Paul did exploration work for the Bear Creek Mining Company the summer of 1954. in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In 1955 and 1956, he was the Arizona State Mineralogist. Between jobs he continued his graduate study at the University of Arizona and was elected to Sigma Xi in 1954.
The Howells returned to Portland in 1956. Paul worked as the Supervising Geologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers In 1959, he flew back to Tucson to attend a Geological Society of America meeting and to receive his doctorate in geology from the University of Arizona.
Dr. Howell is affiliated with the Oregon Engineering Geologists, and the Geological Society of America. He has served the Geological Society of the Oregon Country as consulting geologist for the President's Camp-out in 1969 and as trip leader for the society during 1968 and 1969.
On Nov. 8, 1969, he retired from the Army Corps of Engineers. As of March 1970, Br. Howell is an adjunct professor of geology at Portland State University.
