Truckin' on the Western Branch

Wilson Nathaniel “Nat” Howell Nat Howell is a professor at the University of Virginia and the former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait from 1987 to 1991. I am always glad I grew up in the golden age of being a kid. Open land all around, free to roam and explore—just be back by dark. We could chop down trees and build forts and bridges. We used to ride bikes across the Churchland Bridge and along Tyre Neck Road—very pastoral then. There were a number of children in school with me from the farms. I knew all the folks at the Bennett’s Creek Dairy. I grew up on edge of Simonsdale, an early part of Norfolk County. I went to Alexander Park Junior High with mostly kids from Craddock, and we’d fight every afternoon in the cloakroom. Most people in the time had racial stereotypes—father was a chemical salesman and also a supervisor on the Portsmouth/Norfolk ferry. He had plenty of stereotypes but looked at individuals as individuals. I spent most Christmas Eves on a truck with him delivering Christmas toys from the USO in black neighborhoods.

Wilson Nathaniel “Nat” Howell. Image by Sheally

By the time I was 10, I knew I wanted to be a diplomat. I changed my name from Wilson Nathaniel Howell to W. Nathaniel Howell or Nat. A sax player was my second choice.

At Churchland High, I made friends in the debate club and forensics essay writing. Mrs. Dorothy Monroe was the forensics coach—wonderful English teacher. I worked with her every Sunday afternoon for elocution and forensics lessons, and she got rid of my Southern accent.

Jimmy Jones and I were both in the dance band. I played the alto sax; Jimmy played the trombone. The county didn’t cover the band expenses, so the band parents earned money for uniforms, etc., by working the concession stand and selling Christmas trees on Route 17.

I was also in the Bob Armistead Orchestra, sometimes called the Starlighters. The band started in high school and then picked up players from Wilson and Cradock. We played at Glensheallah Country Club and were sort of the house band at Bide A Wee and on the upper floor of the Portsmouth Star building. I played sax—and jammed on Friday afternoons all through my career.

At the University of Virginia, I was in the Foreign Affairs Department with a specialty in Soviet Studies. In 1967, with my PhD, a wife, and two children, I was named an ambassador’s executive assistant. I went most of my career without ever completing an assignment before a war or other unrest came up. On August 2, 1990, Howell was the U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait when Iraq invaded. Howell kept the embassy in Kuwait City open, even under siege, to maintain a presence and to shelter U.S. citizens until their evacuation. Finally in mid-December they all left, leaving the embassy empty but technically still open. Two years later Howell retired and joined the faculty of the University of Virginia.

Wilson Nathaniel “Nat” Howell. Image by Sheally

From left, W. Nathaniel III (Chip), Marge, President George H. W. Bush, Nat, and Edward Vaughn Howell.

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