Andrew
Andrew Wilson "Wil" Howitt
HOWITT, Andrew Wilson "Wil", aged 56, passed away unexpectedly in early September at his home in Cambridge, MA.
He was the son of Andrew J. and, the late, Jane Howitt of Westwood. In addition to his father he is survived by his sister, Cynthia Sellers and her husband, Will of East Falmouth, and his brother, David of Everett, Washington, as well as several loving Aunts and Uncles and many cousins. Wilson was a graduate of Westwood High School Class of 1978, Stonehill College Class of 1982 and The University of Notre Dame du lac, Class of 1983, and received both Masters and Doctorate degrees from MIT where he studied Signal Processing and Speech Pattern Recognition in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, Bose Corporation, the Boston University Speech Lab, and at various startups around Cambridge. He was the owner of otolith.com which specialized in audio signal processing.
He developed the HumCooler and had several published articles in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America relating to speech analysis. He held a patent for a method for performing voice compression. He toured the country as a member of the Notre Dame Men's Glee Club, and performed with and organized assorted A Capella groups over the years. He was an active member of Boston Mensa. He was a longtime participant at Arisia, New England's largest and most diverse sci-fi & fantasy convention. He had several short stories published in regional 'zines and Mensa publications.
He authored the 2015 science fiction novel, "citizenchip"(sic) and was a member of the Boston Writers Special Interest Group. He was working on his second novel. Wilson's interests were extremely numerous and varied and included: Mensa's Downtown Lunch Bunch, Burning Man, Cauldron Farm, Four Quarters Farm, Starwood Festivals, Bread and Puppet, Rainbow Gatherings, Earth Drum Council, TaKeTiNa, Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize, and the MIT Steer Roast. He was a kinetic LED sculpture enthusiast and developer. He loved drumming, hiking, swimming, and anything to do with the outdoors, including motorcycling and sailing. While in school he was a sailing instructor at Hale Reservation in Westwood. He was very proud of his Scottish heritage. He loved Wellfleet. He loved all types of food particularly Asian and Dim Sum was one of his favorites. He loved to introduce family and friends to this unique tradition. He also loved Mary Chung's 'Suan La Chow Show'. He loved good beer, good whiskey, and brewed his own mead. He loved reading, writing and learning. He loved sharing his interests with others and was an outstanding teacher. He was a teacher of Taoist martial arts, and enjoyed fencing with a German longsword from his collection. His tolerance, kindness, and sensitivity to others drove him to stand up for people and groups who could not speak for themselves. Wil loved life and lived it fully. He will be missed dearly by all who knew and loved him.
A Celebration of Wil's life will be held on Saturday Nov. 5 at 11AM at Boylston Schul-Verein (germanclub.org) 8 County St. (Rte. 109), Walpole, MA. Please express your intent to attend to wilslife@comcast.net by Nov 1.
In lieu of flowers consider a donation in Wilson's name to: Friends of Cape Cod National Seashore, Red Maple Swamp Trail Fund (http://fccns.org/donate.html) FCCNS, P.O. Box 550, Wellfleet, MA 02667 or a charity of your choice.
Holden-Dunn-Lawler
www.hdlfuneralhome.net
He was the son of Andrew J. and, the late, Jane Howitt of Westwood. In addition to his father he is survived by his sister, Cynthia Sellers and her husband, Will of East Falmouth, and his brother, David of Everett, Washington, as well as several loving Aunts and Uncles and many cousins. Wilson was a graduate of Westwood High School Class of 1978, Stonehill College Class of 1982 and The University of Notre Dame du lac, Class of 1983, and received both Masters and Doctorate degrees from MIT where he studied Signal Processing and Speech Pattern Recognition in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, Bose Corporation, the Boston University Speech Lab, and at various startups around Cambridge. He was the owner of otolith.com which specialized in audio signal processing.
He developed the HumCooler and had several published articles in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America relating to speech analysis. He held a patent for a method for performing voice compression. He toured the country as a member of the Notre Dame Men's Glee Club, and performed with and organized assorted A Capella groups over the years. He was an active member of Boston Mensa. He was a longtime participant at Arisia, New England's largest and most diverse sci-fi & fantasy convention. He had several short stories published in regional 'zines and Mensa publications.
He authored the 2015 science fiction novel, "citizenchip"(sic) and was a member of the Boston Writers Special Interest Group. He was working on his second novel. Wilson's interests were extremely numerous and varied and included: Mensa's Downtown Lunch Bunch, Burning Man, Cauldron Farm, Four Quarters Farm, Starwood Festivals, Bread and Puppet, Rainbow Gatherings, Earth Drum Council, TaKeTiNa, Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize, and the MIT Steer Roast. He was a kinetic LED sculpture enthusiast and developer. He loved drumming, hiking, swimming, and anything to do with the outdoors, including motorcycling and sailing. While in school he was a sailing instructor at Hale Reservation in Westwood. He was very proud of his Scottish heritage. He loved Wellfleet. He loved all types of food particularly Asian and Dim Sum was one of his favorites. He loved to introduce family and friends to this unique tradition. He also loved Mary Chung's 'Suan La Chow Show'. He loved good beer, good whiskey, and brewed his own mead. He loved reading, writing and learning. He loved sharing his interests with others and was an outstanding teacher. He was a teacher of Taoist martial arts, and enjoyed fencing with a German longsword from his collection. His tolerance, kindness, and sensitivity to others drove him to stand up for people and groups who could not speak for themselves. Wil loved life and lived it fully. He will be missed dearly by all who knew and loved him.
A Celebration of Wil's life will be held on Saturday Nov. 5 at 11AM at Boylston Schul-Verein (germanclub.org) 8 County St. (Rte. 109), Walpole, MA. Please express your intent to attend to wilslife@comcast.net by Nov 1.
In lieu of flowers consider a donation in Wilson's name to: Friends of Cape Cod National Seashore, Red Maple Swamp Trail Fund (http://fccns.org/donate.html) FCCNS, P.O. Box 550, Wellfleet, MA 02667 or a charity of your choice.
Holden-Dunn-Lawler
www.hdlfuneralhome.net
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