John Howard Jr. Ph.D.
John Howard Jr., Ph.D., is publisher and owner of RW&D Publishing and author of the Mysterious Gem Series, a medieval fantasy tale featuring: Rachel, the Princess, Mascara, the Witch, and Meinheart, the Dragon. Dr. Howard is the senior English professor on the Palatka Campus of St. Johns River State College in Palatka, Florida where he teaches Composition I, Composition II, Literature 2000, American Literature I, Creative Writing, Technical Writing, and Children’s Literature.
A former athlete at the University of Cincinnati where he made Most Valuable Player and was inducted in the university's basketball hall of fame. Dr. Howard played professionally for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1968-1969. Dr. Howard has always been more than an athlete; his roots are steeped in scholarship and writing.
He is also the author of the Golfer’s Playbook. While producing The Mysterious Gem Series with the first book in the sequence subtitled "The Black Ruby,” Dr. Howard is putting the finishing touches to his “dramedy,” the Steel Box,” a screenplay, “A Vision of Greatness,” and a children's book, “George the Knot Headed Golf Ball.”
A successful career in school administration as a high school principal, associate superintendent, and superintendent of schools, Dr. Howard received international recognition as an innovator of instructional systems and theme based curricula for Magnet Schools. As superintendent, Dr. Howard purchased a small college (40 acres + buildings) and converted the property into a campus high school complex. Some notable achievements in Dr. Howard's career included being the first African- American: Superintendent of the Year in the State of New Jersey, recipient of the prestigious Walter Wriston Award for outstanding leadership in education, and served as a high school principal in Michigan and Connecticut.While in graduate school at the Ohio State University during the early 1970’s Dr. Howard co- authored his first book, The Adoption of Systems Innovations in Complex Educational Organizations: a Case Study of Operation Guidance while working as a research associate at the National Center for Research in Vocational Technical Education at the Ohio State University. From there, John developed and published a host of curricula materials and products for the Michigan Department of Education where he served in the capacity of the User Services Manager of the Michigan Occupational Information System (MOIS).
The Mysterious Gems books are created for all of the students who enrolled in his English courses at St. Johns River State College. Many of his present and former students have asked for examples of writings in the active voice; therefore; he wrote the Mysterious Gems Series to answers their questions, provide relevant illustrations of sentences written without the dreaded “"to be" verb,” and motivate them to pursue their own creative writing projects.
No To Be Verbs!
Now recognized by professional writers in the field as the first author in the history of writing to pen a fiction novel without including the following “To be verbs:” am, is are, was, were, be, been, and being and become in narration, description, or dialogue.