Geoffrey Peter Howard 1937–2021

When the late Harry Mundy finally gave in to the offers to join Jaguar in 1968, Geoff Howard took over as technical editor at Autocar. He was always an enthusiastic road tester and organised the journal’s team of testers, in addition to his major role in covering and describing the latest products and developments from the motor industry.

Geoff had joined the staff of Autocar in 1962 with the declared aim of guiding readers to be more discerning in the choice of cars to buy. He had achieved an Honours BSc in mechanical engineering at Imperial College, London, and started his engineering career working for de Havilland.

After six years as Autocar’s technical editor he left the journal in 1974 to join Ford as chief press officer (cars), later moving to Ford of Europe as manager of product and technical information.

In 1981, Geoff left Ford and set up as a freelance writer specialising in cars and engineering, and was one of the first to invest in a Commodore computer, known in those early days as a ‘word processor’.

He was always very knowledgeable and interested in all matters relating to computers and even built his own computer.

A keen gardener, he liked to have an immaculate garden at his home near Cambridge, with ponds exactly level and lawns beautifully manicured.

This has been a bad 12 months for Geoff, as he began to lose balance control and could not walk unaided, as well having to be fed through tubes because any solid food went into his lungs causing pneumonia which he suffered three times in 2020.  He died in his sleep just after his 84th birthday. The Guild offers sympathy to his widow Jane, and their two sons, Justin and Alexander.

Stuart Bladon