Mark A. Howland
Graduating class: 1972
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2005
Hall of Fame Category: Lifetime Achievement
Currently the CEO and Chief Biologist for Environmental Research Corps, Mark has been in the environmental field all his life. His parents, Allen "Tennie" and Teresa, owned and operated Howland Greenhouses on Alden Road for many years. His sister, Jane, now runs it.
While at F.H.S. Mark was a member of the National Honor Society and winner of the Science Book Award. Lettering in tennis 3 years, Mark was Captain his senior year. He was also the co-recipient of the Coaches Trophy. Mark graduated from Southeastern Massachusetts University in 1977 with a B.S. in Biology. Now working towards a Master of Science in Public Affairs at UMASS Boston, Mark has also done equivalency work in soil science, natural resource management and business management.
Mark is the recipient of several awards. In 1988, he received the EPA Environ mental Technology Innovator Award for the Howland Swale, a stormwater mitigation design. In 1999 he won the EPA Environmental Technology Innovator Award again for an erosion control product called the Biofence. In 2001 he received the EPA Environmental Merit Award for outstanding efforts in preserving New England's environment. He was also the recipient of the 2001 Environmental Award of the Decade given by Hands Across The River and the Concerned Citizens of Freetown's 2001 Community Merit Award.
Mark has served his hometown of Freetown on many boards, including the Board of Selectman from 2000 to 2003. He was elected to the 12th Bristol District State Representative's seat of the General Court as a Massachusetts legislator where he served from 2003 to 2005.
Mark has been a business delegate on Massachusetts Trade Delegations that have traveled to France, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Australia. He is a certified botanist on the state and federal level, a soil scientist, hydrologist, published author, erosion control professional, and pollution investigator. He has been a course instructor in aqua-culture at Cape Cod Community College and Southeastern Massachusetts University from 1989 to 1991. He was also an honorarium lecturer on ecopolitics at Emerson College in 2004.