“international leadership in the evolution of systems for the future welfare of society” on the side table.

He is survived by his youngest son, five grandchildren: Michelle Gagne-Sustaita, Monique Gagne-Escaler, Norman Gagne, Edward Barnes, and Deborah Barnes-Taylor, and four great-grandchildren.

Howard loved to invent the future. He was stern yet fair and happy on the job, and he treated younger engineers as peers. He knew how to follow a leader, even as he developed his own followers along the way. When Philip Sporn died, it was said that “a giant redwood had fallen.” Howard Barnes was a tree in the same forest.