1988 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year

Randolph Howes

 

Professor Randolph M. Howes M.D., Ph.D. was born on August 17, 1943 in a small rural hospital in Madisonville, Louisiana. While at the hospital, an accidental hip burn from a heating pad introduced Dr. Howes to the harsh realities of life. Raised on a small bucolic strawberry farm in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, Dr. Howes learned ethics, morality, hard work and respect for his fellow man at a young age. Humble beginnings launched his lifetime trek of achievement as a scientist, surgeon, writer, visionary, philanthropist, international lecturer, singer, songwriter, business entrepreneur, broadcaster, inventor, corporate executive and rancher.

He attended St. Joseph's elementary school for eight years, served as an altar boy and sang in the choir. Next, he attended Ponchatoula High School where he finished as President of the Student Council by winning an election over the school's quarterback of the football team. He attributes this hard-fought win to his guitar playing and singing abilities. Dr. Howes began playing self-taught guitar professionally at 13 years of age. In 1961, Dr. Howes entered Southeastern Louisiana College (now Southeastern Louisiana University), where he took premed courses, made the Dean's list, made the honors chemistry class, worked 40 hours/week at the Psychology Research Laboratory under Dr. John R. Nichols, played music in his 3 piece combo, named The Three Blind Mice, and was elected as president of the Catholic Youth Organization, the Inter-fraternity Council and the Junior class. He was featured in his college newspaper for his versatility and industriousness and he presented his first scientific paper to the Southwestern Psychological Association on interspecies intelligence, while still in his junior year. He has since been honored as an  Alumnus of the Year, along with Robin Roberts of ABC's Good Morning America. Later Southeastern articles would refer to him as "a Da Vinci in cowboy boots." He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Biological Sciences for many years at Southeastern. His Southeastern Louisiana University education opened the doors of academia for him and he next matriculated to Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.

While working on double doctorate degrees, Dr. Howes worked as a technician on the isolation of thyrotropin releasing factor with Nobel Laureate, Dr. Andrew V. Schally, studied under Dr. Richard Steele, whose mentor was Nobel Laureate, Dr. Albert Szent Gyorgii, met Nobel Laureates, George Wald and Dr. Linus Pauling, who felt that Dr. Howes could help bridge the gap between physicians and scientists, served as president of the Biochemistry graduate students, graduated in the top 10, received the 1971 Pathology Association Award, was elected to Sigma Xi honor fraternity and was the first in the history of Tulane School of Medicine to receive double doctorate degrees in medicine and biochemistry simultaneously. He was the first to be designated by the late Dr. Theodore Drapanas as a trained "surgical scientist" at Tulane Medical School.

He matched with his first choice at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital for internship and residency training. He chose it over other top notch programs because Dr. George Zuidema, Chief and Blalock Professor of Surgery, gave him permission to conduct research studies concurrent with his surgical training in the highly sought after William Stewart Halstead program.
Even during his internship year, he was permitted lab space by Dr. John Cameron, past president of the American Surgical Association, and he secured his own grants, trained his own lab technicians and later wrote many papers on surgical and oxygen free radical subjects during his residency training. He played music and sang for many of the surgery resident's functions and broke an ankle in a resident's football game and sustained significant trauma from a motorcycle accident.. He was the first to complete board eligibility in both general and plastic surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, while doing basic research on oxygen metabolism, all in a six-year period. He had the opportunity to work with the pioneer of mitochondrial biochemical function, Dr. Albert L. Lehninger, and rubbed elbows with many of the greats of science, surgery and medicine. He trained with Dr. Edward Luce and Dr. James Wells, both of whom have served as president of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. He trained under Dr. John E. Hoopes, past president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. He received many grants, honors and awards from 1971-1977 during his years at Hopkins, which are detailed in his full curriculum vitae.

His musical interests have carried him to perform at the New Orleans World's Fair, on many televised shows, appearing with numerous country superstars and ultimately to center stage at the famed Grand Ole Opry Gospel Hour in Nashville, Tennessee. He has composed over 500 songs and his original "Fantasies of You" recording went to the # 1 chart spot on Nashville's Panel Report for nationwide independent air play. He was honored by the Country Music Associations of America with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Inducted into the Tracker Hall of Fame, received the King Eagle Humanitarian Award for "Your Devotion To the Betterment of Mankind", received the 1999 Golden Music Award, Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter/Artist/Humanitarian and many other such honors. In 1994, he received Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's America's Awards honoring Unsung Heroes, known as "The Nobel Prize for Goodness," and in 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree by SLU. That same year he was sworn in by Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mayor of New York City, as the Community Mayor for the State of Louisiana, International Council of Mayors and was an awardee, along with Dr. Stephen Ambrose, for the George Washington Honor Medal.

Told that he could not go directly into solo practice, he boldly returned to New Orleans in 1977 and opened his private practice at the Institute of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, which became a bona fide success story. He has served as president of the Metropolitan Cosmetic Surgery Society and the Louisiana Cosmetic Surgery Society, and has served the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgeons in numerous national offices and in many capacities. He was awarded a patent certificate for inventing the triple lumen venous catheter in 1977, licensed it to Arrow International, Inc. in 1981, successfully defended it is a multimillion dollar six year patent infringement suit and watched it become recognized as the number one venous catheter in the world. His multilumen catheter has been credited with helping save the lives of over 20 million critically ill patients worldwide and the name of Howes is well-known in over 100 countries.

He performed pro bono surgery, since 1982 throughout the Philippines, was honored by the Philippine Ministry of Health in 1985 and since 2004, he holds the Espaldon Professorial Chair in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. He was the recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Community Mayors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in 1996. His philanthropic and humanitarian efforts have been acknowledged by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush and he has received a letter of appreciation from the current USA President, George W. Bush.

He retired from his private practice to pursue his dream of contributing to a better understanding of oxygen biochemistry and of conducting an arduous in depth review of the world's scientific literature on oxygen metabolism. In 2004, he published his first in a series of e-books on oxygen metabolism, which was a 767-page tome entitled, "U.T.O.P.I.A.: Unified Theory of Oxygen Participation In Aerobiosis." Also in 2004, in an unprecedented move, The Johns Hopkins Hospital gave him an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery.

In 2005, he published his second e-book, a 931-page tome, entitled, "The Medical and Scientific Significance of Oxygen Free Radical Metabolism." In 2006, he has published a third companion e-book, 274-pages, entitled, "Hydrogen Peroxide: Monograph 1: Scientific, Medical and Biochemical Overview and Antioxidant Vitamins: A, C & E: Monograph 2: Equivocal Scientific Studies." These books contain thousands of references and represent the most comprehensive overview of oxygen metabolism available today. His belief is that the free radical theory is unfounded and that electronically modified oxygen derivatives (EMODs) are of low toxicity and are essential for energy production, for pathogen protection, as secondary cell messengers and as tumoricidal agents. His Unified Theory states that EMOD deficiency levels "allow" for the manifestation of diseases, including neoplasia and is a contributing factor in the aging phenomenon. Dr. Howes, who is both an experimentalist and a theoretician, is an international lecturer on plastic surgery and a world expert on the biochemistry of oxygen free radicals. His passionate goal is to have cures at the bedside, based on his innovative theories involving electronically modified oxygen derivatives, within his lifetime.