Marcia Harris Howard ’54

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Marcia Howard is one of those rare individuals who combines enthusiasm with grace and determination. Her broad vision and passionate advocacy for UCLA is exemplified by her personal service and donations, along with her recruitment of others. These qualities combined with her strong leadership ensure her ventures’ ultimate success.

Volunteering in the College of Letters and Science, Howard has served on the advisory board, all of the Provost’s councils and cabinets, the Humanities Council and as a Foundation trustee. As chair of the College’s Social Science Council, Howard has broadened and strengthened its membership and activities. A founder of a new travel program for the humanities, she chartered the “Adopt-A-Scholar” initiative and helped develop the business economics program. As salon chair for the Humanities Advisory Council, she started a series of intellectually exciting events that brought together faculty lecturers, chamber music and an elegant reception. In 1995, she was co-chair of the highly successful College Awards Dinner and continues to serve on the dinner committee.

Howard is an original member of the Business Economics Advisory Council, and she is also a member of the First Century Society, Women & Philanthropy, Chancellor’s Associates and Gold Shield Alumnae of UCLA. She and her husband established the Howard Speaker Series Endowment for the business economics program. Howard also has been a UCLA Foundation trustee and currently serves on the board of governors.

“In every one of the numerous interactions I have had with her, she provided me with a sense of concern and total support. It is, I should say, not only I who am indebted to her but countless faculty and students who have no idea of her existence. Their lives are better as a consequence of her attachment to us and efforts on our behalf.” – Herbert Morris, dean of humanities 1983-1993, professor of philosophy and law