Walter Howard, OISE Instructor, U of T alum

The late Walter Howard was a renaissance man, someone who moved easily between the worlds of education, music, the outdoors and building construction. Walter was also a passionate OISE math education instructor and U of T alum.

Walter completed an undergraduate degree in physical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1955 and a year later, he obtained a master’s degree in solid-state physics (the study of solid materials). He married his high school sweetheart Audrey Cumberland in 1955. Audrey became a teacher, vice-principal and later, continuing education co-ordinator at the Toronto Board of Education.

Walter taught at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where he provided curriculum and produced a 1,000-page math textbook. When Grade 13 was abolished in Ontario, so too was the Triple Maths program.

His life is being celebrated with this piece in the Waterloo Region Record: Lifetimes: Innovative math teacher inspired students, and changed the way the subject was taught