Howard III, Roscoe Joseph (1954–2019)

Roscoe Joseph Howard III was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and administrator, serving in the North Pacific and Mid-America unions as well as the North American Division. He was the first Africa-American president of the Mid-America Union.

Early Life

Roscoe Joseph Howard III was born on September 9, 1954, in Casper, Wyoming. His parents were Rosco Joseph Howard Jr. (1930-2023) and Ethel Hannah Frazier (1929-1969). The family included three daughters, Roscoe III’s older sisters Twila Laverne, Taya Marcel, and Aryonna Bella.¹

Roscoe Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and moved to Wyoming with his parents, Roscoe Joseph Howard Sr. (1910-1984) and Delores Boatner (1914-1988),² in 1936 where they were members of the Casper Seventh-day Adventist Church. Born in Georgia, Ethel was the adopted daughter of Napolean Bonaparte Frazier (1874-1956)³ and Elsie Herbert (1871-1936), who moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Roscoe Jr. and Ethel met while students at Pine Forge Academy. Following their marriage in 1949, they settled in Casper, Wyoming, where their four children were born. After their divorce in 1961, Ethel and the children moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Roscoe Jr. remarried. With his second wife, Mildred Pauline Barnes (1926-2007), he adopted a daughter, Tami.⁴

Education and Family

Roscoe Howard III started elementary school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After his mother’s death, he moved to San Diego, California, where he lived with his father and step-mother, and attended high school for two years. He was baptized in San Diego in 1971. He attended Auburn Adventist Academy, near where his sister Twila had settled in Seattle, Washington, for the final two years of high school.⁵ Following graduation in 1973, he enrolled at Pacific Union College (PUC). Believing that he would be pastoring African American churches, he petitioned PUC for permission to attend Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) for part of his senior year. He returned to PUC for graduation in June 1978. In 1984, he completed a Master of Divinity degree from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, graduating magna cum laude.⁶ Howard also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2012.⁷ His doctoral project explored leadership strategy and diversity training for church congregations.⁸

While at Oakwood, Howard met Osceola Wimbisha, a student from Akron, Ohio. She graduated from Oakwood with a Bachelor of Arts in religion and a minor in sociology. They were married on June 17, 1979.⁹ Their family was completed with the births of two children, Heather Nicole and Seth Joseph.¹⁰

Career

Following graduation from Pacific Union College, Howard became the associate pastor of the Spruce Street and Maranatha Seventh-day Adventist churches in Seattle, Washington,¹¹ where he served until he went to Andrews University in 1981. Following two years at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, he returned to Washington State to participate in evangelism training at the North Pacific Union Conferences’ Northwest Ministries Training Center. He became the pastor of the Oak Harbor district that same year.¹² As the first black pastor of two historically white congregations on Whidbey Island, which was nearly unheard of at the time,¹³ Howard “determined not to assimilate into the corporate culture of the church but to take this opportunity to educate and create a bridge of understanding between the races.”¹⁴ Howard was ordained near the end of 1986.¹⁵

In January 1988, Howard returned to Seattle as pastor of the Emerald City Community Church, formerly the Spruce Street congregation where he had been associate pastor.¹⁶ During his tenure as senior pastor, the congregation inaugurated a new church building.¹⁷ Meanwhile, he had also been invited to join the Washington Conference executive committee in May of 1987.¹⁸ In 1991, he was among the instructors of the National Evangelism Institute sponsored by the Northwest Evangelism Institute.¹⁹ That same year Howard was elected to the North Pacific Union Conference executive committee as the church pastor representing the Washington Conference.²⁰ He also became lay activities director and senior youth director for the Washington Conference during this time.²¹

Others started to notice his work in the Washington Conference. The family moved to Portland, Oregon, after Howard was elected special assistant to the president for multicultural affairs in the North Pacific Union Conference on March 30, 1993. He simultaneously served as the associate church ministries director.²² As special assistant for multicultural affairs, Howard believed that the Church had an opportunity to “present a model to the world of a community that ideologically and practically has learned to live at peace and in harmony with all cultures and ethnic groups” if it would accept the challenge.²³ During this time, Howard also served as a member of the Black Adventist Youth Directors’ Association which organized a youth congress in St. Petersburg, Florida in the spring of 1993.²⁴

In March 1995, Howard was part of a team from the North Pacific Union that conducted evangelism in Harare, Zimbabwe, as part of Hands Across the World, a General Conference initiative first proposed in 1993 with a plan for interdivisional cooperation in organizing 2,000 new congregations in unentered parts of the world by the year 2000.²⁵ Throughout his career, Howard also preached in Zambia, South Korea, and Cambodia. As a result of all of these trips, a cumulative total of over 2,000 people were baptized.²⁶

Howard left the Pacific Northwest when he accepted the call to become the secretary of the Mid-America Union in June 1997.²⁷ The Howard family remained in Lincoln, Nebraska, for five years. In 1993, he became the secretary of the North American Division (and an associate secretary of the General Conference) in Silver Spring, Maryland,²⁸ where he served for five more years. Howard was among a group of Church leaders attending meetings in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, in November 2004 when fighting erupted between French and Ivorian soldiers. Church officials, including Howard, were confined to their hotel for five days before they could safely leave the country.²⁹

In June of 2008 Howard became the first African-American president of the Mid-America Union.³⁰ Two years later Adventist Health System (now AdventHealth) in Altamonte Springs, Florida, invited Howard to become vice president of missions.³¹

Illness and Death

Howard’s career came to a premature end when he developed symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2013. A difficult disease to diagnose, he consulted specialists in Tampa, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts. He and his wife also spent three months at a clinic in Japan that specialized in the treatment of ALS. While the treatment was ineffective, they were able to witness to clinic staff and other patients. The disease progression was difficult for the entire family, but even in his infirmity, Howard exhibited the same positive attitude with which he had lived the rest of his life. Howard officially retired in 2018 and passed away on January 21, 2019, in Apopka, Florida.³²

Legacy

Throughout his childhood and education, Howard experienced cultural fluidity as he moved between a predominately rural white community in Wyoming and an urban African-American community in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to urban centers on the West Coast. His varied educational experiences included both historically white campuses (Auburn Adventist Academy and PUC) and the historically black Oakwood College. These diverse experiences enabled him “seamlessly to communicate with any culture that [he found himself] in.” It taught him “about disinterested benevolence, serving people just because they needed to be served.” These ideas informed his ministry and his thoughts about church unity throughout his career. He understood that with

complex diversity comes conflict. How to manage that kind of conflict is really important, and I think the church in North America does need to be educated [in that respect]…We are going to have to show that people under the guidance of the Holy Spirit cannot only live together but can embrace their differences and realize that those differences are really the ways we bless [and complement] each other…

… Unity doesn’t mean there is a monolithic, myopic idea of what everybody believes and does...But I think the church is big enough for people to recognize that in various cultures there may be traditions or ways of doing things that are neither worse nor better than others. They are simply different. In that difference we celebrate, and we say, “God bless you if that’s the way you can communicate the gospel better.”³³

Howard recognized that implementing this type of unity in diversity would be difficult.

Sources

Carlson, Dennis N. “Emerald City Community Church Grand Opening.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, November 21, 1988.

Carlson, Dennis N. “Oak Harbor Pastor Ordained.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, December 1986.

“Delores Howard obituary.” Casper Star-Tribune, April 17, 1988.

“Early Fall Wedding is Planned by Couple.” Casper Star-Tribune, August 26, 1949, 4.

“Ethel Howard obituary.” The Patriot [Harrisburg, PA], February 1, 1969.

“Evangelism Institute.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 4, 1991.

“General Conference Annual Council Actions.” ARH, February 24, 1994.

Howard, Roscoe J., III. “A Leadership Strategy for Managing Heterogeneous Outreach at the Edge Christian Worship Center in Minnesota.” DMin diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 2011.

Howard, Roscoe. “Planting Seeds of Unity.” ARH, February 1996.

“Ivory Coast: Church Official Describes Life Under Siege.” ARH, December 9, 2004.

Johnston, Bruce. “Out of Africa.” North Pacific Gleaner, May 15, 1995.

Kellner, Mark A. and Roscoe Howard. “Inside Mid-America with Roscoe Howard.” ARH, February 11, 2010.

“Napolean B. Frazier obituary.” The Evening News [Harrisburg, PA], October 1, 1956.

“New Committee Members Elected.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, June 3, 1991.

“New NPUC Directors.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 19, 1993.

North American Division Office of Communication. “Roscoe J. Howard, Former NAD Executive Secretary, Passes to His Rest.” North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, January 24, 2019. Accessed October 8, 2025. https://www.nadadventist.org/news/roscoe-j-howard-former-nad-executive-secretary-passes-his-rest/.

“People in Transition.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, October 15, 1979.

Perry, Olson. “Black Youth Congress Attracts Thousands.” ARH, July 22, 1993.

Roscoe Howard, “Planting Seeds of Unity.” ARH, February 1996, 20.

“Rosco Howard, Sr. obituary.” Casper Star-Tribune, July 2, 1984, B-2.

“Roscoe Howard to Lead Mid-America Adventists.” ARH, May 8, 2008.

“Roscoe J. Howard III, D.MIN. AdventHealth Vice President of Missions Passes.” Southern Tidings [online]. November 2019. Accessed October 8, 2025. https://www.southerntidings.com/feature/roscoe-j-howard-iii-d-min-adventhealth-vice-president-of-missions-passes/.

Schwisow, Ed. “Northwest Seminarians Hone Evangelism Skills at Training Center.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 20, 1984.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988-2010.

Summit County, Ohio. Marriage Certificate no. 31653 (1979). Roscoe Joseph Howard III. Ohio Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, Columbus, Ohio.

Notes

1. “Ethel Howard obituary,” The Patriot-News [Harrisburg, PA], February 1, 1969, 4. Ethel’s obituary and marriage certificate suggest she was born in 1931; however, she is listed as 11 months old in April 1930 in the United States Federal Census. Twila’s name is spelled Twilla in some records. Taya’s birth name was Tollea, and Aryonna’s birth name was Trevella. Both legally changed their names.↩

2. “Delores Howard obituary,” Casper Star-Tribune, April 17, 1988, B-2.↩

3. “Napolean B. Frazier obituary,” The Evening News [Harrisburg, PA], October 1, 1956, 19.↩

4. “Oakwood College: New Personnel,” North American Regional Voice, March 1982, 14; “Mildred Pauline Howard obituary,” The Commercial Appeal, May 30, 2007, B4.↩

5. Osceola Howard, text message to the author, October 23, 2025.↩

6. “Official Graduation List,” Andrews University, 2015, accessed October 6, 2025, https://vault.andrews.edu/vault/app/gradlist/collect_list_of_graduates; Dennis N. Carlson, “Oak Harbor Pastor Ordained,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, December, 1986, 24. The official graduation lists supports the 1984 graduation date; however, both Dennis N. Carlson and Osceola Howard claim Roscoe Howard graduated in 1983. It may be that he completed coursework in Michigan in 1983, but his degree was not conferred until after he completed evangelism training in the winter/spring of 1984. See Schwisow below.↩

7. Osceola Howard, text message to the author, October 23, 2025.↩

8. Roscoe J. Howard III, “A Leadership Strategy for Managing Heterogeneous Outreach at the Edge Christian Worship Center in Minnesota” (DMin diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 2011).↩

9. Summit County, Ohio, Marriage Certificate no. 31653 (1979), Roscoe Joseph Howard III, Ohio Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, Columbus, Ohio.↩

10. Osceola Howard to Michael Campbell, email, September 14, 2023.↩

11. “People in Transition,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, October 15, 1979, 11; Osceola Howard to Michael Campbell, email, September 14, 2023.↩

12. Ed Schwisow, “Northwest Seminarians Hone Evangelism Skills at Training Center,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 20, 1984, 10.↩

13. North American Division Office of Communication, “Roscoe J. Howard, Former NAD Executive Secretary, Passes to His Rest,” North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, January 24, 2019, accessed October 8, 2025, https://www.nadadventist.org/news/roscoe-j-howard-former-nad-executive-secretary-passes-his-rest/.↩

14. Roscoe Howard, “Planting Seeds of Unity,” ARH, February 1996, 20.↩

15. Dennis N. Carlson, “Oak Harbor Pastor Ordained,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, December, 1986, 24.↩

16. “People in Transition,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 4, 1988, 19.↩

17. Dennis N. Carlson, “Emerald City Community Church Grand Opening,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, November 21, 1988, 5.↩

18. “Washington Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988), 234; Osceola Howard to Michael Campbell, email, September 14, 2023.↩

19. “Evangelism Institute,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 4, 1991, 14.↩

20. “New Committee Members Elected,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, June 3, 1991, 4.↩

21. Washington Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1991), 229.↩

22. “New NPUC Directors,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 19, 1993, 3.↩

23. Roscoe Howard, Diversity in a Church Facing the Twenty-First Century,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, April 18, 1994, 2.↩

24. Olson Perry, “Black Youth Congress Attracts Thousands,” ARH, July 22, 1993, 14-15.↩

25. Bruce Johnston, “Out of Africa,” North Pacific Gleaner, May 15, 1995, 2; “General Conference Annual Council Actions,” ARH, February 24, 1994, 17.↩

26. Osceola Howard, telephone conversation with the author, October 23, 2025.↩

27. Osceola Howard to Michael Campbell, email, September 14, 2023; “News Notes,” ARH, January 1998, 23.↩

28. Linda P. Walton, “NAD Leaders Meet to Discuss Remuneration, Evangelism,” ARH, December 2002, 40.↩

29. “Ivory Coast: Church Official Describes Life Under Siege.” ARH, December 9, 2004, 19.↩

30. “Roscoe Howard to Lead Mid-America Adventists,” ARH, May 8, 2008, 21.↩

31. “Roscoe J. Howard III, D.MIN. AdventHealth Vice President of Missions Passes,” Southern Tidings [online], November 2019, accessed October 8, 2025, https://www.southerntidings.com/feature/roscoe-j-howard-iii-d-min-adventhealth-vice-president-of-missions-passes//.↩

32. “Roscoe J. Howard III, D.MIN. AdventHealth Vice President of Missions Passes,” Southern Tidings [online], November 2019, accessed October 8, 2025, https://www.southerntidings.com/feature/roscoe-j-howard-iii-d-min-adventhealth-vice-president-of-missions-passes/.↩

33. Mark A. Kellner and Roscoe Howard, “Inside Mid-America with Roscoe Howard,” ARH, February 11, 2010, 23-25; Osceola Howard, telephone conversation with the author, October 23, 2025.↩