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| Howard Corn (left) with one of his favourite authors, Geoffrey Bond |
Howard was a regular visitor for many years, first when I lived in a little flat in Chelmsford and later at various houses in Colchester. Although Howard lived in Duston, Northants., he drove around the country selling books to Christian bookshops for Bookwise and I always seemed to be on the route. I hope he welcomed the cup of tea I always provided him with; I know I always welcomed the copy of Eagle Times and was more than happy to help out with bits of information. "What do you know about so-and-so?" he'd ask. "Hang on, I'll go and have a look," I'd reply, and nip off to my office to look up so-and-so on my computer.
He was hugely knowledgable about the paper and its creators and penned many features for Eagle Times about Eagle and other contemporary papers, including Express Weekly and Lion. He wrote extensively on 'Riders of the Range' as Cowhand Horn. He was also a very good promoter of the Society, contacting and talking to many provincial papers over the years, which kept a steady trickle of new members coming in. He was involved heavily with Eagle Days get-togethers and the Society's annual dinner.
Howards interests extended to other areas of boys' fiction and I believe he was a member of the Cambridge Old Boys Book Club.
Howard was born in Crewe, Cheshire. He was married twice: to Sandra Berryman in 1972 and to Rosemary Inwards in 1992.
My sympathies to his family and my best to the team putting together Eagle Times hereon.
(* Photo from Eagle Times v23n1, 2010.)
The following is a comment from Tony Cowley:
ReplyDeleteI would just like to add my personal comments.
Firstly, that I'm still trying to come to terms with the our loss, as are other members of the editorial team and our membership.
Secondly, may I endorse everything Steve has said above and add a brief addition:
Howard's dedication to both Eagle Days, c1983, and Eagle Times surely must surely stand as a publishing record for a fanzine. If the ET dummy issue is counted, that he personally put together in time for a meeting of fellow Eagle enthusiasts at the Westminster Hall comic market in 1987, then Howard had his editorial hand on no less than 116 issues of Eagle Times over an unbroken 29 year period, produced on time, every time. If one then considers his four year contribution to Eagle Days then his dedication to our beloved Eagle can be measured in terms of almost half his lifetime.
My thoughts go out to his family, in particular his wife Rosemary who should be thanked by everyone concerned, for supporting him in our hobby over the entire time of her marriage to Howard and for making us so welcome whenever we met at their home in Duston.
Finally, Howard was a natural leader and a gentleman who led from the front managing to enthuse his ET team to give of their best. He was also a truly loyal personal friend for nearly 30 years.
RIP
Tony Cowley