| 3.20.2003
Carlton 'Bud' Howorth III, 39; cancer survivor, hard rock fan
The yearbook entry for Carlton "Bud" Howorth III, Class of 1981,
Cohasset High School, lists his pet peeve as "wasting time."
"He was in a hurry," says John MacLeman, a friend and former
colleague. "He wanted to get it all in.
"You could tell he was just soaking it up, every minute he spent
with you," MacLeman said.
Perhaps that stemmed from his abounding enthusiasm for the things he
loved. And there were a lot of things he loved.
"He talked in absolutes," MacLeman said. At restaurants, Buddy
would tell the waitress, "This is the best hamburger I've ever had."
He loved bacon and eggs. He loved fishing, skiing, football and hockey.
He loved his two black Labradors. He loved his girlfriend, Donna Reis.
"He put me on a pedestal," she says.
And he loved his blond daughter Elizabeth, now 3.
"He adored her, she adored him," says his father, Carlton Howorth
II, also known as Bud. "She was his life."
Buddy, 39, was a child of the '80s. He loved heavy-metal music, the sound
that characterized that decade for many, and, according to his girlfriend,
he was a "computer geek."
Mr. Howorth said his only son, a technical support manager at Ciber Corp.
in Woburn, found the hard-rock sound relaxing. But the fast-living image
that went along with a lot of the bands didn't apply to him.
"He was a clean-cut kid," the father said. "He just happened
to like that music."
At the memorial service for Buddy, the minister quoted Bruce Springsteen
and Motley Crue from the pulpit of the pristine white-clapboard Second
Congregational Church, in Cohasset, Mass.
Engaging. Passionate about music. Adoring. These are some of the words
used by friends to describe him. Photographs from various stages of life
show him as a youngster in the snow, as a teenager with the football team,
and as a grown man, beaming as he holds his daughter up for the camera.
"He believed in always being happy," Donna said. He had recovered
from cancer, and the experience made him live for the moment. "He
had the greatest outlook on life after that."
John MacLeman says Buddy and his ex-wife, Karen, set him up on a blind
date with a friend of theirs named Susan. It worked. They are getting
married in October.
That Thursday night at The Station, Buddy and Donna were right next to
the stage when the fire started.
When Donna fell down in the crush, Buddy pushed her to safety.
MacLeman said Buddy was like that. With any friend in danger, "it
would have been them first."
-- Jenny Holland
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