Howard Douglas Brenton, longtime Harbor resident, died Aug. 16, 2022, at his home in Central Park. He was 83 years old.

Howard was born on Feb. 14, 1939, in New York City to Elmer and Edna Brenton. The family lived in Forest Hills, New York until 1942 when Elmer was called up to serve in Europe during WWII. They first moved to North Carolina to be close to Elmer during training and then Howard, his mother, and older sister, June, took the train to California where they settled in Palo Alto near Elmer’s sister. Elmer returned from the war in late 1945 and the family remained in the Bay Area where Howard completed his schooling close to home, graduating from Stanford University with a Master of Science in Engineering in 1962.

After graduation Howard worked all summer as an intern engineer for Bechtel, Corp. in San Francisco then shipped out to Germany with the Army Corps of Engineers where he served until 1964. He traveled around Europe for a few months before returning home and going back to work for Bechtel. Not happy working in an office building in San Francisco, he started interviewing for other positions up and down the West Coast, landing a job as a civil engineer for the Weyerhaeuser pulp mill in Cosmopolis, Washington in 1965 where he worked until retiring in 2001. He met Berta Slaght, a nurse working in Aberdeen, in 1966 and they married in 1967.

Howard and Berta had two sons and spent their 55 years of marriage volunteering with their local church and community organizations and taking care of their family and friends. They took the family (and sometimes the church youth club) on camping trips, backpacking trips and even road trips around the country. After retirement they continued their volunteer activities and expanded into prison ministries, international mission trips and tutoring at the church school in Central Park.

Howard was a prolific storyteller, entertaining generations of children and adults. He told stories in church, bedtime stories to his children and grandchildren, and entertained everyone at family gatherings and holidays. He could make stories up on the fly to delight the kids, and he also collected and retold stories he heard or read.

Howard is survived by his wife Berta, his sons Douglas Brenton (wife Tiffany) of Vancouver and David Brenton (wife Sheri) of Montesano, and four granddaughters: Mikayla, Lyndi, Kiana and Silvia. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister.

A memorial service will be held on Oct. 22, 2022, at 2 p.m. in the Grays Harbor Seventh-Day Adventist Church, located at 3101 Cherry St. in Hoquiam, the same church Howard was married in and attended for over 55 years.