ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210056
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
WHEN Leo V. Howard, a 36-year-old Presbyterian minister, came to Roanoke from Houston in 1974, he had an addiction to smoking - two packs of cigarettes a day and sometimes a pipe - and a conviction that competent counseling should be available to all, no matter their income.
The father of two, Howard was earning $20,000 a year when he set up the Roanoke Valley Pastoral Counseling Center, the valley's first religiously oriented counseling practice, at Second Presbyterian Church.
Now, nearly 22 years later, Howard has been forced into retirement. Sustained on oxygen 24 hours a day, he must stay in his Southwest County home much of the time, and the counseling center has new leaders.
Howard was diagnosed with chronic lung disease in 1982, the height of the center's success. The disease, he says, is a result of his heavy smoking and a genetic tendency.
Treatment gave him 10 more good years in the vocation he loves, but his lungs failed in 1992. Unable to fight off an infection 11 months ago, he spent more than four months in Roanoke Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, eventually realizing that his disability is too severe to continue his work.
"It's been a big adjustment for me and the family," Howard says in the understated drawl that has set many a troubled person at ease in his presence, "but life's not so bad. The [Presbyterian Church] pension board has let me retire early, and I'm free of the pressures and the deadlines we have to live with in the mainstream of life."
Howard's successor at the counseling center, the Rev. Julie Hollingsworth, said, "Leo's teaching us all how to adjust to disability. It's a gift just to go and talk to him these days."
Howard says he's learned a lot from chronic illness. The hospital staff from doctors down were kind and compassionate throughout his long stay, he said. But, he was especially impressed by the maturity and competence of young medical attendants who showed him that despite the pressures most youths live with today, they are not necessarily selfish.
Adjustment for Howard means more time to read. He says he learned in seminary years ago to digest books in a hurry, and now he sometimes finishes one in a day. His enforced leisure has also given him time to begin culling his extensive library. Part of the realization of aging, he says, is "knowing I'll never get to read or reread them all."
He avoids much TV watching, but has found his computer a fascinating learning tool. Though not yet in "a chat club," he says with a laugh, he travels via the Internet and looks forward to acquiring more proficiency.
He and his wife, Mary Beth, who once was on the staff of the center, have gotten into cooking new and unusual recipes.
But, mostly Howard enjoys reflecting and talking about the state of the church and the family - the two institutions that have influenced his professional life. He's thinking of doing some writing about them and says he would be glad to leave that behind for yet-to-be-born grandchildren.
When he came to Roanoke from the pastorate of a small, run-down parish in Houston, the Mississippi native practiced family therapy. His patients, many referred by their ministers, were troubled by rebellious youth, marital power struggles and the depression many women experienced "by taking on all the worrying for the family."
He and his associates began to see problems resulting from addiction to illegal drugs and alcohol, gambling and other compulsions. These problems, he says, are even more serious today because there are harder drugs and more opportunities for gambling.
The '90s have brought financial problems from layoffs, unsuitable jobs and a whole set of social issues related to children and the elderly, he says, and dealing with such issues is far more difficult than complaining about the decline of human and spiritual values.
His advice on solving these problems? "It's that there are no simple answers."
People, he says, need all the help they can get.
That, he says, is not cynicism. It's the kind of realism that arms people of faith secure in "the grounding of God."
Both technology and faith give hope, he says, enabling even those with difficulties like his to sense a continuing cultural progress.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staf One thing the Rev. Leo Howard saysby CNBhe has learned in his years as a counselor: "It's that there are no
simple answers." color