OBITUARY: Howard Witt
Howard B. Witt died quite suddenly of bacterial pneumonia on Tuesday, Aug. 3 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He was 81.
Howard is survived by his wife of 59 years, Marilyn, and four children Randy (Kathy) of Kansas City, KS; Ryan (Lauren) of Colorado Springs, CO; Laura Deal of Nixa, MO and Ashley (David) Merced of Chicago plus eleven grandchildren Ethan Witt, Mia Witt, Breanna Witt, Carson Witt, Ava Witt, Leila Deal, Ella Deal, Gavin Witt, Jackson Merced, Harrison Merced and Monroe Merced.
Howard was known for his sense of humor and his “gift of gab.” He was able to make anyone he met feel welcome and to know how interested he was in them personally. He was especially good at greeting newcomers to the island and he loved giving them, and anyone else who was interested, a tour on his golf cart while explaining the history of the island and sharing in detail all of the things that made Boca Grande so special.
He loved taking walks on the beach, however, his walks usually involved more talking than walking. He loved chatting with everyone he came across and wanted to know their “story” if he did not know them or to find out what was new if he did. Visiting the library was on his daily schedule so that he could get caught up on the Wall Street Journal plus chat with any friends he saw there and make new acquaintances. While he was there, he loved browsing through the rack of returned movies which were waiting to be shelved, in order to find any unseen ones that might be of interest.
Howard graduated from Northwestern University in 1963 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. As the years went by, he became an increasingly devoted NU sports fan, wanting to stay in Chicago until the end of the football season each year. He made sure that he bought season tickets to the basketball games too, even though he had to give many of them away because they were scheduled for after he was in Florida. But wherever he was, he did not miss any of the NU sporting events, being glued to the TV watching every move when he could not be present.
After Howard graduated from Purdue University with an MBA in 1964, he held multiple management positions in several companies before joining Littelfuse, Inc. in 1979. Littelfuse is an American electronics manufacturing company founded in 1927 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its founding, the inventor of the small protective fuse that he wished to name his new company after, approached the U.S. government for a patent on the name Littlefuse. He was rejected on the grounds that the words were too common, and so he reversed the l and the e to form Littelfuse.
In 1968 Littelfuse was purchased by Tracor and when Tracor filed for bankruptcy in 1991, it spun off Littelfuse as its own company. Littelfuse reincorporated with Howard as its president and CEO, as he had been named President and CEO of the company in February, 1990. With Howard’s insight and guidance, the company offered its second IPO and profits rose throughout the 1990s enabling Littelfuse to expand its operations into Europe, Asia and China.
In the September, 1997 issue of Worth magazine, Howard was featured in the cover article as one of six entrepreneurs “Who Will Make You Rich”. In addition to Littelfuse, Howard served on the boards of Artisan Partners Funds, Material Sciences Corp., Franklin Electric and World Kitchen (which is now Corelle Brands Holdings, Inc.) where he was elected chairman of the board.
Howard was always so very thankful for his four loving and strong children and his eleven wonderful grandchildren ranging in age from three to 22. The feeling was mutual, his youngest daughter and her husband thought so highly of Howard that they gave their three sons the middle name of Witt. Howard loved whenever any (or all!) of the grandchildren visited him in either Chicago or Boca Grande.
A memorial service for Howard is being planned for Wednesday, Dec. 29 at 11 a.m. to be held at the Lighthouse United Methodist Church of Boca Grande located at the corner of Gilchrist Avenue and 3rd Street.
